Importance of the vase
The vase is important for three reasons. Firstly, with its deep yellow colour and slightly tinted glaze it is a very early example of Wedgwood's creamware (cream-coloured earthenware, a type of lead-glazed pottery strengthened with calcined flint, which Wedgwood perfected in the 1760s). Secondly, it is a very early example of engine-turning on ceramics (a type of decoration carried out on a special lathe), which Wedgwood was the first to use on pottery in 1763. Thirdly, it is one of Wegwood's first forays into vase production, made before he fell under the sway of neoclassical design in the later 1760s. Engine-turned creamware vases of this type were only made for a short period from about 1764, when he sent his first examples to his future partner Thomas Bentley, until sometime in or after 1765, when he sent two sets of vases ‘engine-turned and printed’ to Queen Charlotte. Wedgwood's gift to Queen Charlotte led to him branding his creamware as Queen's Ware.

Comparable pieces
The vase appears to be identical in design and in the details of the engine-turned decoration (number and arrangement of flutes etc) to one in the Wedgwood Museum, Barlaston, but is slightly smaller, so was probably intended as one of the outer vases in a garniture of three or five. The Wedgwood Museum has another similar vase and pedestal (again with no cover), each part with a band of applied Vitruvian scrolling ornament. Saltram House has a garniture of four vases of this basic design, but with covers. The V&A has one vase of this class with some engine-turning at the base (3119-1853).