Lyngby Vase Heights: H12.5, H20.5, H31 or H38 cm

The fluted Lyngby vase is made in seven heights, from H8.5 cm to H38 cm, and every step up changes the diameter and the weight as well as the silhouette. That is what decides which flowers a given vase can actually hold upright. This guide puts the heights side by side, then works through stem length, surfaces and how to group three of them without the result looking like a set.

The seven heights side by side

All seven share the same white porcelain body with vertical ribs running the full height, a flat rim and a straight neck that does not taper. What changes is scale, and the numbers move in a very regular way.

The vase as it is made today belongs to the Lyngby collection credited to Karakter Copenhagen and produced by Rosendahl Design Group, carrying forward Lyngby Porcelæn's Danish design heritage since 1936. The porcelain is dishwasher safe at a maximum of 55°C in every height.

What the steps between sizes actually do

Divide each height by its diameter and the answer stays close to 1.8 all the way up: 12.5 over 7, 20.5 over 11, 31 over 17.5 and 38 over 21 all land within a narrow band. The vase is therefore not stretched or squashed as it grows. A small one is a faithful miniature of a large one, which is why the range photographs so well as a group and why nothing looks out of scale when you mix heights.

Weight behaves differently. Between the Lyngby Vase H12.5 cm white porcelain and the Lyngby Vase H38 cm white porcelain the height roughly triples, while the weight goes from 0.34 kg to 5 kg. Wall thickness and base mass rise with the volume, so the tall vases are far steadier than their proportions suggest. The H38 at 5 kg does not need to be filled with water to stay put, and the 2.25 kg of the Lyngby Vase H31 cm white porcelain will hold a top-heavy branch arrangement without help.

At the other end, the H8.5 cm at 0.091 kg is light enough to tip if you push a stiff stem into it off-centre. Keep that one for short, soft cuttings and let the heavier sizes do the structural work.

Matching stem length to the height you choose

The useful working ratio is simple: the finished arrangement wants to stand about one and a half to two times the height of the vase, measured from the surface to the highest flower. On a H20.5 cm vase that means flowers reaching roughly 30 to 40 cm, which is where most cut bunches sit once you have trimmed them. On the H31 cm it means 45 to 60 cm, the natural length of tulips, delphiniums and cut branches.

• H8.5 and H12.5 cm: ranunculus, anemones, single roses, herb sprigs. The Ø5 cm and Ø7 cm openings grip a few stems and hold them upright rather than letting them splay.
• H15.5 and H20.5 cm: the sizes that take a wrapped bunch as bought. The Ø11 cm neck of the H20.5 is wide enough that a dozen stems can lean outwards on the rim.
• H25 and H31 cm: long garden stems, peonies, hydrangea heads, cherry or eucalyptus branches. The Ø15 cm and Ø17.5 cm openings let a loose bunch fall open on its own.
• H38 cm: tall branches, pampas, dried grasses, or nothing at all. At Ø21 cm this one is a piece of sculpture that happens to hold water.

If you already know you buy the same shop bunch every week, choose by stem length rather than by height alone, then pick the vase whose opening keeps those stems where you want them.

Grouping three heights on a sideboard

Three vases is the arrangement that works most reliably, and the mistake is choosing three heights that sit next to each other in the range. Neighbouring sizes read as a slightly wrong repeat. Skip a size instead and the difference becomes deliberate.

Two combinations do most of the work. The first is H12.5, H20.5 and H31 cm, which gives steps of 8 cm and 10.5 cm: enough separation that each vase has its own job, small enough that the group still reads as one family. The second is H15.5, H25 and H38 cm for a longer surface, where the tallest can stand alone at one end and the two smaller ones cluster.

Place them off a straight line. Set the tallest slightly back, bring one forward so the fluting catches light from a different angle, and leave a hand's width between them so the vertical ribs are not lost in a solid white block. Filling every vase is optional and usually a mistake: one with flowers, one with a single stem and one empty gives the group rhythm. A H38 cm vase at 5 kg is also perfectly comfortable on the floor beside a sideboard rather than on it, which frees the surface for the two smaller heights.

If you want variation in the group without leaving the range, remember that the vase is made in other colours and in glass, and our piece on the Lyngby Vase in Porcelain or Glass: H20.5 or H25 cm covers how the two materials differ in the same heights.

Which height to buy first

For a first vase, the Lyngby Vase H20.5 cm white porcelain is the one that fits most situations: tall enough for a bought bunch, short enough to sit on a dining table without blocking a view across it, and light enough at 0.77 kg to move while full. It is the size people tend to keep in daily use.

Buy the H31 cm next if you cut from a garden or like branches, and the H38 cm only if you have a surface or a corner that can carry a 21 cm diameter and a 5 kg object with air around it. Add the H12.5 cm last, as the small counterweight that makes a group of three work. The porcelain is the same in all of them, so the decision is entirely about stems, surface and how much vertical presence you want in the room.

See the full Vases collection for the rest of the range in porcelain, ceramic and glass.