A little loving cup of an urn, fluted top to bottom and finished in a soft ivory glaze that pools and speckles the way hand-glazed ceramic should.

Two scrolled handles, a pedestal foot, a silhouette borrowed from garden statuary and brought down to the scale of a side table. It holds a fist of peonies, a few branches, or nothing at all.

For the housewarming, the wedding table, the friend whose mantel needs one good thing.