Strange Van Briggle piece - what is it?

I passed up one of these the other day, because I couldn't figure out what it is. I found on Google these images of a matching piece, but could not click through to the site where they were posted.

It's about 8 - 9 inches high, and 6 - 7 in diameter near the base. It's open and hollow, with random holes in the side. I've tried lots of search terms like twist/twisted, swirl/swirled, spiral, etc. I also looked for flower arrangers/frogs, incense burners, and candle lamps. I happened across the photos by chance while searching for the brown glaze color name.

Does anyone know what this is? Oh, I also looked in my copy of the Van Briggle Collector's Encyclopedia - but couldn't find a match there either. Thanks!



The one I saw had slightly different markings. I was mainly curious if this is the top piece to something which holds it in the four rectangular slots.

 

My knee jerk was incense burner .I wonder if its some sort of plant thing? Maybe there was a base that fit those 4 slots.

 

If there was some sort of insert, it would look nice with paperwhites growing through the holes.

 

My thoughts exactly.

 

From that angle it looks like it has a face... kind of an elf or gnome?

That's not what you were asking but... just an impression.

 

Looks more like a vegetable to me, maybe squash, but I see Van Briggle did make a gnome incense burner that had an underplate, missing on this one too. Rereading description, have to wonder: how big an item were incense burners in 1917, as seller says it is dated?

 

This 'tulip planter' uses a similar glaze combo.

 

That's a Dryden glaze, maybe a pre-Van Briggle version can be found if you search with Dryden instead of Van Briggle.

 

Thanks for the replies, everyone. If I ever find a documented match, I'll post an update.

Good point - thanks. I'll see what I can find.