This jar was thrown and glazed by Roger Fry and hand-painted in glazes by Vanessa Bell. The pot was first covered in a white glaze and fired. Onto this blank vessel, Bell painted using glazes in hues of navy blue, turquoise green and mauve, before it was refired and the glazes fixed. Characteristically handicraft bands of decoration in mauve encircle the neck and base of the jar, with consecutive circles at the neck and two rows of intersecting semi-circles at the base. The space framed by these bands is filled with four loosely interconnected female nudes. They are all crouched to fit the compact space available. Their outlines were drawn in a blue glaze and schematic washes of turquoise were added to create modelling. Each figure adopts an individual attitude: two look towards each other with outstretched arms, locked in a dance posture redolent of Matisse’s La Danse; a third looks out from the jar, bringing one hand up to the face and sitting on the other; a fourth is viewed in profile, crouching and with both arms outstretched and entwined.

Fry’s initials are inscribed in bold, flowing letters on the underside of the pot. Fry became interested in making ceramics shortly after the establishment of the Omega Workshops in 1913, and the art historian Richard Shone has described his rapid progression from amateur to aficionado potter:

"Through late 1913 to late 1914, Fry gradually acquired skills first at a workshop in Mitcham, south London, and then at the Camberwell School of Arts and Crafts. […] Fry’s shapes are spare, simple and generous, surfaces enlivened by inflections of his hand and the subtle glazes […]."

The Omega Workshops’ policy was to anonymise the work of contributors, and all wares – including the ceramics made by Fry – were stamped with the Omega symbol. The presence of Fry’s initials on the underside of this jar shows it was made after the closure of the Workshops in 1919. Fry’s post-Omega wares are relatively scarce. Collections of his ceramics are held by the Victoria & Albert Museum, the Courtauld Gallery and the Charleston Trust, all of which hold ceramics made at the Omega Workshops, to the exclusion of his later wares.