Guide to choosing a vase for the home: flowers, table, and living room
Some objects wait for us to use them. A bowl waits for food, a glass for a drink, a candle holder for a candle. A vase sits in a more interesting place. It can hold a large bunch, a single branch, flowers picked on the way home, or a few stems that have almost finished their life. But it can also stand empty.
A good vase does not become meaningless the moment the flowers fade. It stays in the room as form, colour, and material. Sometimes it is closer to a small sculpture than to a useful vessel; sometimes its very simplicity lets one flower have a presence it would not have had inside a large bouquet.
That is one reason I like collecting vintage vases in Denmark. Danish ceramic and glass are full of vessels that move on the border between use and design, between craft and art, between an object that holds something and an object that holds a whole room.
Why does a vase change a room?
A vase is a way to bring colour, height, texture, and form into a room without changing the furniture and without committing to a large piece. It can make a focus on a table, give a shelf life, tie together colours already in the room, or bring a new material into a space that looks too even.
A coloured-glass vase answers the light and changes through the day. A ceramic vase adds weight and texture. Porcelain can feel fine, pale, and exact. A tall vase draws the eye upward; a low, wide one gives the table a sense of steadiness.
But the most interesting thing about a vase is its relation to what is around it. When it is empty, we see its form. When flowers go in, the form becomes a frame. The same vase can look restrained with one branch, wild with an unarranged bunch, and sculptural with a few stems that have bent in different directions.
What marks Danish vases?
There is no single form called a “Danish vase”. The history of Danish ceramics includes blue-and-white porcelain, heavy stoneware, earth-toned glazes, geometric shapes, organic shapes, colourful patterns, and vessels that look almost like living creatures.
At the end of the nineteenth century and the beginning of the twentieth, Danish makers were influenced by Japanese ceramics, European art, and new experiments in glaze and clay. Later, artists and ceramic factories began to explore simpler forms, even glazes, and stoneware in which the material itself took a central place.
In the Danish Modern period, especially from the mid-twentieth century, vases were made in Denmark that joined a useful form to a modernist language. Makers such as Axel Salto, Gertrud Vasegaard, and Henning Koppel worked with Royal Copenhagen, alongside other Danish workshops and factories. Some pieces were made in industrial series; others were made in a studio or in small quantities.
The result is not one style, but a way of thinking about the object. An everyday vase can still be well made, and a useful vessel can still hold a sculptural idea.
What is special about glass vases from Denmark?
Denmark has a long tradition of designing and making glass. Holmegaard, one of the names most tied to Danish glass, was founded as early as 1825. Over the years glass artists and designers worked there and made vases, bowls, drinking glasses, and objects that became part of the history of Scandinavian design.
Glass lets a vase do something ceramic does not: work with the light. A clear vase almost disappears and lets you see the stems and the water. Coloured glass gently tints the light that passes through it. Thick or bubbled glass breaks the light and makes reflections. A dark vase can look like a deep patch of colour even when it is empty.
In vintage glass vases you find green, blue, amber, purple, red, smoked glass, and glass that is completely clear. Some were blown by hand and so may include small bubbles, changes of thickness, or quiet marks of making. Not every unevenness is a flaw. Sometimes it is the evidence that the material passed through hands, tools, and fire.
What is the difference between ceramic, stoneware, and porcelain?
Ceramic names a wide family of materials made from clay and fired with heat. Inside that family are different kinds of vessels.
Earthenware fired at a relatively low temperature can be more porous and softer. If it is not well glazed, it may soak up water.
Stoneware, sometimes called כלי אבנית in Hebrew, is usually fired at a higher temperature. It is often denser, heavier, and more durable, and it is closely tied to the Scandinavian ceramic tradition of the twentieth century.
Porcelain tends to be thin, pale, and sometimes a little translucent against light. It can look delicate, but a high firing gives it strength and density.
The differences are not only technical. They change how the vase feels. A stoneware piece can feel earthy, heavy, and material. A porcelain vase can feel light and exact. Glazed ceramic allows an almost endless play of colour, sheen, and texture.
Does a vase have to hold flowers?
Not at all. A vase can be a design object even when it is empty, especially when it has a strong form, an interesting glaze, or a colour that changes the room.
In fact, a vase you do not find beautiful when empty will probably always depend on flowers to justify its place. A vase you love without contents can stay in the room all year and change each time you put something else in it.
You can put in it:
- One branch with an interesting form
- A few green leaves
- Flowers from the garden or the road
- Grasses and wild flowers
- Seasonal branches
- Dried flowers
- Stems with seed pods
- Or nothing
The empty space inside the vase is also a possibility. It lets the object wait without feeling that something is missing.
How do you choose a vase for flowers?
People tend to choose a vase by its colour and design, and only at home discover that the opening is too narrow for the bunch they buy, or so wide that the flowers fall to the sides.
It is worth looking at four things: height, width, opening, and weight.
Height of the vase
A tall vase supports long stems and suits branches, sunflowers, lilies, gladioli, or flowers with high lines. A low vase suits flowers cut short, field bunches, and a table centre that should not hide the people sitting around it.
There is no mathematical ratio you must obey, but the flowers and the vase should look like one composition. If the stems are too short inside a large vessel, the flowers can look as if they are being swallowed. If they are too long for a small, light base, the vase can lose its steadiness.
Width of the opening
A narrow opening gathers the stems and holds them upright. It suits one branch, a few single flowers, or a minimal arrangement.
A medium opening is the most flexible and suits most home bunches.
A wide opening lets you make an open, broad arrangement, but it needs more stems or an inner structure to help hold them. You can use branches, leaves, or a crossed arrangement of stems to make a natural support.
Weight and base
A tall bunch makes a lever. So a tall vase needs a stable base and enough weight not to tip easily. This matters especially in a house with children, animals, or a busy table.
Colour and material
A neutral vase gives the flowers the centre of the stage. A colourful vase can take part in the arrangement and make contrast or continuity. A clear vase shows the stems and the water, so it needs a little more attention to cleanliness and to how things look below the flowers.
Which vase works for a large bunch?
For a full bunch, choose a vase with a medium or wide opening and a stable base. If the vase is very narrow, the stems will press together and the arrangement can look crowded. If it is too wide, the bunch will lose its shape and fall to the sides.
Before you put the flowers in, take off leaves that will sit below the waterline. Leaves left in water rot and shorten the life of the bunch. Recut the stems with a sharp tool and use a clean vase.
If the bunch arrived wrapped and arranged in a stiff shape, you do not have to keep the form in which it was bought. You can take it apart, divide it between two vases, or take out a few stems to give the flowers room.
Which vase works for one flower or a branch?
A small vase with a narrow neck gives a single flower support and lets you see the line of the stem. Such vases are sometimes called bud vases, and they are especially good for a flower that broke from a bunch, a small branch, a bud, or a flower a child brought from the road.
Several small vases can work together as a group. You can put different flowers from the same family of colours in them, or divide one bunch among several vessels. Each stem gets a presence of its own, and the whole arrangement feels lighter.
There is something generous about a small vase. It says you do not need a large bunch to justify flowers in the house.
Which vase works on the dining table?
On a dining table, choose a vase that does not block the line of sight. A low, wide vase can hold a horizontal arrangement. A small, narrow one can take only a few stems. You can also spread several small vases along a rectangular table instead of putting one large bunch in the centre.
Think about the real life of the table. Do you eat around it every day? Do you move things off it often? Are there children who reach out? A beautiful vase you cannot live with will end up in a cupboard.
If you love a tall vase, you can put it on the table when it is not in use and move it to a chest at mealtime. Objects in a house do not have to stay in the same place always.
Which vase works in the living room?
In the living room you can choose a vase with more presence. On a low chest or a console, a tall vase can add a vertical line and draw the gaze upward. On a coffee table, check that it does not get in the way of seeing, moving, or setting down glasses and books.
A coloured-glass vase can look beautiful by a window, but it is worth avoiding long exposure to direct sun when the glass is old or delicate. A ceramic vase can stand on a shelf, in a niche, or beside books and objects of other materials.
If the room is already full of colour, a vase in a deep or neutral tone can add quiet. If the room is very restrained, a vase is a good place to bring in colour without changing the whole space.
How do you style a shelf with vases?
A collection of vases can look rich and interesting, but it can also quickly become a row of vessels waiting impatiently for flowers.
Instead of lining all the vases by height, try making small groups. Pair a tall vase with a low vessel, clear glass with opaque ceramic, and a simple form with an object that has texture. Leave empty space between the groups.
You can put a small vase on a stack of books, set a tall one behind and a wide one in front, or let one vase stand alone. If every vessel is strong and colourful, the eye has nowhere to rest. Sometimes the most important object on the shelf is the gap between the objects.
Do several vases have to be from the same series?
No. Vases can join through colour, material, period, proportion, or feeling, even if they were made in different places and years.
You can gather glass vases in different tones, a group of stoneware in earth colours, or small vases each with a different form. You can also make a mixed group in which one vase is colourful and the others stay quieter.
A good collection does not have to begin with a conscious decision. It can be discovered afterwards. One day you realise you are always drawn to amber glass, narrow necks, a deep blue glaze, or heavy ceramic. The collection teaches you something about your taste.
What can you learn from the mark on the bottom of a vase?
On the bottom of a vintage vase you can find a factory stamp, a hand signature, a model number, an artist's mark, an old sticker, or sometimes nothing.
The marks can help identify the maker, the designer, the series, or the period. Still, not every mark is an artist's signature, and not every unsigned vessel is without value. Factories changed stamps over the years, stickers fell off, and independent makers sometimes used marks that are hard to read.
A number on the bottom is not necessarily the number of a limited edition. It can be a model number, a size, a colour, or an internal mark of production.
Attribution matters when it is known and reliable, but it does not replace looking at the object itself. Form, material, quality of work, and how the vase acts in the house matter even when the maker's name stays unknown.
Are bubbles, lines, and cracks flaws?
Not every unevenness is damage, but it matters to tell a mark of making from a structural problem.
In hand-blown glass you may see small bubbles, changes of thickness, and lines from the work. In ceramic you can find differences in the glaze, marks of the hand, small dots, or crazing — a fine net of lines in the glaze.
On the other hand, a crack through the body, a chip on the rim, an old repair, or an unstable base can affect use. Even a vase that looks whole may leak if the material is porous, the glaze is cracked, or it has been repaired.
Before you fill a vintage vase with water, it is worth checking it. Put it on a surface that will not mind, fill it with a little water, and wait. With an old ceramic piece that is unglazed or repaired, you can put a small glass vessel or a test tube inside to hold the water and flowers without wetting the vase itself.
How do you clean a vintage vase?
Always start with the gentlest method.
Sound glass and ceramic, without cracks, flaking, loose decoration, or repairs, can usually be cleaned gently in lukewarm water. Avoid extreme changes of temperature, because they can make glass or ceramic crack.
Do not put vintage vases in the dishwasher. The detergents, heat, and movement can harm the glaze, the colour, and the surface of the glass. Do not use bleach, acids, or abrasives to take off a stubborn stain. Sometimes the attempt to remove a stain does more harm than the stain itself.
On a piece with peeling glaze, a fine hand-painted decoration, gilding, cracks, or an old repair, avoid soaking. Dust it with a soft brush and ask a professional if a deeper clean is needed.
To keep flowers fresh, use a clean vessel, take off leaves that sit under water, recut the stems, and keep the vase away from a heat source. Change the water when it becomes cloudy.
Is a vintage vase a good gift?
A vase is a good gift because it can be useful and decorative at the same time. It suits a new house, a birthday, a holiday, hosting, or someone who loves design when you do not want to choose a piece of furniture or a large object for them.
Fit the gift to the person, not only to the occasion. For someone who buys flowers often, a flexible vase with a medium opening works. For someone who loves sculptural objects, choose a vase with a strong form that will be beautiful empty too. For a small house, a small or medium vase that is easy to move between rooms is better.
A vintage vase is a gift that does not feel as if it was picked up on the way to the till. It is a single object, with material, time, and a story, that can enter someone else's life.
What will you find in the shop?
In the shop you will find special and vintage vases I collect one by one in Denmark. There are ceramic, stoneware, porcelain, and glass vases, tall and low ones, vases for a single flower and vessels that can hold a whole bunch.
Some are tied to a Danish factory, studio, or designer. Others are anonymous finds chosen for form, glaze, colour, material, or their presence in a room.
On each product page you will find measurements, photographs, and information about the piece's condition. When there are marks of use, patina, unevenness, a crack, a repair, or a limit on filling with water, it will be noted. A vintage piece does not have to be perfect, but the person who buys it should know exactly what they are getting.
You can order on the site and choose between pickup in Tel Aviv and shipping across Israel. Most vases exist in a quantity of one.
A good vase does not wait for the perfect bunch. It lets us notice a branch, a single flower, the colour of glass against the window, and the way a small object can change the room around it.