This copper urn is Frank Lloyd Wright's finest design in metal and a supreme example of American Arts and Crafts metalwork design. This particular example is the only one known to retain most of its original surface. Although only 48.5 cm high, it is a monumental object whose function within the interior was an architectural and sculptural one, in the fullest sense of the terms. Wright used similar urns in a number of commissions between 1895 and 1904, each a slight variant on the other. In the Dana House this urn was one of a pair placed on a low interior wall separating the entrance and the spectacular double height living room (Wright's first use of the latter).

The stylised geometric decoration shows Wright's indebtedness to the Gothic Revival and the design reform movements in Britain, and the work of the French architect Viollet-le-Duc. Wright often employed similar motifs within the fabric of his buildings and the copper colour related closely to the brick and other earth tones of the materials and decoration.