Covered five-tub vase with flower finial

Vessels of this shape were assumed to have been used by farmers who, when working in the fields, could drink water through straws. Some unearthed longquan vases with multiple solid spouts indicate that the form fulfilled a merely funerary, decorative purpose. The ding and cizhou kilns in the north also produced this type of multi-spouted vase during the Song. However, at the longquan kilns the type only existed for a short period during the early Northern Song (Zhejiang Light Industry Bureau 1989: pl. 2).