Adrian Saxe has offered the following commentary on this work (see Object Information File):

One of a small series of thin walled porcelain vessels formed and fired directly onto massive solid lava like stoneware "anchors". The joinings are vaguely inspired by the way sea anemones or coral heads attach to the reef, or to the way fungi and seedlings emerge from lumps of soil. The finials on the lids for this series are all formally beautiful and sumptuous renderings of things that are dangerous (knives, knuckle dusters, grenades) or potentially repulsive or weird to at least some people (douche wands, snails, infant pacifiers). Even if these finials have some appeal and fascination, it is probably inappropriate and disconcerting for most people to manually examine them in a public situation.

The full experience of these jars, or any container with a closure, includes picking up the lid or stopper and putting it through the mechanical operation of removing and replacing the lid while examining the interior of the volume either visually or speculatively in the imagination. Having these normally off putting objects at the point of physical contact, the pieces sometimes produces interesting reactions for the persons engaging the jars. They often are just going through the normal protocol of the interested and informed viewer of ceramics, like the habitual response of a connoisseur of Japanese teaware turning over small teabowls to examine the bottoms. They pick up the lid or stopper in a state of distraction, focusing on the larger experience of the entire piece. Then recognition of what is in their hand kicks in with all kinds of reactions depending what experiences and associations the viewer brings to the encounter. A similar response sometimes takes place when people pick up the lids with antelope finials, but for different reasons. I think that they suddenly realize how fragile the antelope really is and couple that insight with their lack of confidence in handling it and their knowledge of the market value of the piece, and they just freak and nervously try to put the lid back hastily, occasionally dropping and breaking it.

Because these vessels are physically attached to the "rocks" and are not held in place by gravity as are the mortar bowls for example, the vessel portions are cantilevered out into space Having no axial center of gravity and balance, and usually lacking an implied potential for rotation like the mortar bowls and many of the bell shaped covered jars with antelope finials, these pieces are very different than most of the other work. A number of slightly smaller "rocks" with oil lamps built onto them were made in 1984 and 1985 as part of research started in the 1970's leading up to these technical tours de force.

See: Christopher Knight's review with illustrations: "Artist's vessels sail on a revolutionary sea...". Los Angeles Herald Examiner. P. 5; Section E (Sun, 10 Nov 1985)