Lidded vessel

This vessel was probably produced by a Chinese silversmith from among the "Shanghai craftsmen" who immigrated to Bangkok actually from Guangdong province to conduct business in high-quality silverware in the latter decades of the 1800s. On the bottom, the vessel has two identical imprints of a Chinese hallmark that reads "huiyuan," probably the name of the workshop.

A jar of this shape was commonly used as a container for consecrated water used in rituals. During a meritmaking ceremony, the head monk blesses the water in the jar, drips some candle wax into the water, and then sprinkles the water onto the people who gather nearby. Typically, people keep such consecrated water in the shrine room of a home or on a shelf along with Buddha images.