This uncommonly shaped vessel is thought to come from the Hlabisa region. Its appearance is somewhat like a flattened sphere with a ratio of height to diameter of 1 : 1.5, unlike the more common containers which have a height to width ratio of 1 : 1 or 1 : 1.25. Greater technical skill is needed to make this shape compared to the more common type and it is also more delicate to use. Jack Grossert, Inspector of Arts and Crafts for Bantu Education in mid-20th century South Africa, has referred to it as an ingcungu but without any explanation as to its unusual shape.

Its outer surface of a rich dark and reddish brown sheen is decorated with a ‘V’-shaped motif with a zigzag line across its wider upper end. The interior of this ‘V’ is filled in with a shallow criss-cross pattern most likely achieved by dragging an item such as a comb across the clay surface before it had completely dried. This type of decorative mark and the unusual vessel shape appear to be a 20th-century introduction and were well established by the 1960s.

This vessel is attributed to Mncane Nzuza.

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