By the early 1800s, North Carolina Moravian potters were producing ceramic vessels in the shapes of fish, bears, foxes, owls, chickens, turtles, and squirrels. Designed to hold liquids or grains, squirrel flasks were mass produced from custom-made molds that could be used more than a hundred times before needing replacement. To allow for varying postures, the hands, feet, and ears were cast separately. This squirrel, with a speckled polychrome pattern in copper slip beneath a lead glaze, clutches a nut in its hands and features yellow painted eyes, a relatively rare detail among surviving examples.