This container, with its precise decoration and matching lid, manifests a profound clarity of form. Its elegant shape approximates an ovoid sphere with a sleekly swelling body supported by three small legs. These enhance the sense of satiation, of being well-filled, appearing to buckle slightly in response to the suggested weight from above. Further amplifying the sense of tumescence is the finely carved, striated pattern, that articulates its surface. Exactingly wrought, the interlaced and grooved design is more precisely executed than other vessels with similar surface carvings. It is likely that this pattern is a simulation of a basket-weave following the southern African skeumorphic tradition where one form imitates another.

This container and one in the Art Institute of Chicago are two of the finest extant examples of this style of lidded vessel. There is a third in the Brenthurst Collection held at the Johannesburg Art Gallery, and these may have been carved by the same hand or family workshop.

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