The Nicoya style tripod vessels, such as this one, are regarded as some of the finest of the Intermediate Cultural Area. The motifs in black appear on a cream-coloured background, according to the negative painting technique, with details in red, complementing the sculptural decoration which, like the present case, is usually feline, depicting a head with open jaws and pointed ears.

These globular-shaped vessels with a wide, straight out were destined for ritual purposes and they might have contained liquids or any other such offering of a sacred nature.

Tripod vessels with a globular body and wide mouth also appear in other pottery traditions, for instance those of Nicaragua, Panama and even those of some regions of Mexico. This may be vindictive of the contacts which, at different times, were established between the peoples of these distant places.