This is a porringer and it was used for holding porridge. To make a pot out of one single piece of wood would have been very wasteful and probably the wood would eventually split with continual washing and using. This method of using 'staves' of wood bound together with, in this version, withies (thin wooden branches) or with a metal ring, was successful as long as the pot was always kept damp so that the wood was always swollen and pressed against the withies - if it dried out then the bound ring would slide down the pot and the staves would collapse.