This vase has a smooth cylindrical body, a connecting knop, and a round foot. There is no lid. The design is a simplified version of Renaissance reliquaries of the Veneto.

The use of vases of this shape for scientific purposes is attested in the manuscript diaries of the Accademia del Cimento, preserved at the Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale of Florence. The vase was employed as a vessel for liquids whose specific gravity was to be determined by means of hydrometers.