Essentially, this large and complex vessel is a container with nine cups attached - one forming the cover, four surmounting handles attached to the body and a further four attached directly to the body itself. It is a fantastical blend of the robust and the delicate, with a sturdy thrown body and intricately applied decorative detail, every petal and every leaf being individually cut and modelled. It was made to demonstrate the potter's virtuosity and was almost certainly not intended for use. The complex ornate nature of this piece is typical of Spanish vernacular art. The design appears to follow a traditional Spanish form, as a very similar shape is shown in use as a flower pot in an allegory of smell by an anonymous seventeenth-century Spanish painter. Unglazed pottery was a traditional material for water vessels in Spain and other Mediterranean countries, as it permitted evaporation and so cooled their contents.
The vase was purchased for the South Kensington Museum in 1872, probably direct from the potter who made it, as an example of contemporary crafts. It was acquired through the services of the eminent writer, collector and politician Juan Facundo Riaño, who was a key figure in Spain's nineteenth-century re-evaluation of traditional Spanish arts and crafts. Based in Madrid in the 1870s, Riaño was one of the Museum's art referees (scholars and connoisseurs employed to recommend acquisitions for the Museum's collection).