An
urn is a
vaseThe vase is an open container, often used to hold cut flowers. It can be made from a number of materials including ceramics and glass. The vase is often decorated and thus used to extend the beauty of its contents....
, ordinarily covered and without handles, that usually has a narrowed neck above a footed
pedestalPedestal is a term generally applied to the support of a statue or a vase....
. "Knife urns" placed on pedestals flanking a dining-room
sideboardA sideboard is an item of furniture traditionally used in the dining room for serving food, for displaying serving dishes such as silver, and for storage. It usually consists of a set of cabinets, or cupboards, and one or more drawers, all topped by a flat display surface for conveniently holding...
were an English innovation for high-style
dining roomA dining room is a room for consuming food. In modern times it is usually adjacent to the kitchen for convenience in serving, although in medieval times it was often on an entirely different floor level...
s of the late 1760s. They went out of fashion in the following decade, in favour of knife boxes that were placed on the sideboard.
In Classical terms, an urn is a large decorative covered container of wood, metal, pottery, etc.
An
urn is a
vaseThe vase is an open container, often used to hold cut flowers. It can be made from a number of materials including ceramics and glass. The vase is often decorated and thus used to extend the beauty of its contents....
, ordinarily covered and without handles, that usually has a narrowed neck above a footed
pedestalPedestal is a term generally applied to the support of a statue or a vase....
. "Knife urns" placed on pedestals flanking a dining-room
sideboardA sideboard is an item of furniture traditionally used in the dining room for serving food, for displaying serving dishes such as silver, and for storage. It usually consists of a set of cabinets, or cupboards, and one or more drawers, all topped by a flat display surface for conveniently holding...
were an English innovation for high-style
dining roomA dining room is a room for consuming food. In modern times it is usually adjacent to the kitchen for convenience in serving, although in medieval times it was often on an entirely different floor level...
s of the late 1760s. They went out of fashion in the following decade, in favour of knife boxes that were placed on the sideboard.
In Classical terms, an urn is a large decorative covered container of wood, metal, pottery, etc. In furniture, it was a large wooden vase-like container which was usually set on a pedestal on either side of a side table. This was the characteristic of
AdamThe Adam style is a style of neoclassical architecture and design as practiced by Scottish architect Robert Adam and his brothers. A book of engraved designs made the "Adam" repertory available throughout Europe...
designs and also of
HepplewhiteGeorge Hepplewhite was a cabinet and chair maker. He was one of the "big three" English furniture makers of the 18th century, along with Thomas Sheraton and Thomas Chippendale...
's work. Urns were also used as decorative turnings at the cross points of stretchers in 16th and 17th century furniture designs. The urn and the vase were often set on the central pedestal in a "broken" or "swan's" neck pediment.
Cremation urns
Funerary urns (also called
cinerary urns) were used by many civilisations. After a person died, survivors cremated the body and collected the ashes in an urn (see also
lekythosA lekythos is a type of Greek pottery used for storing oil, especially olive oil. It has a narrow body and one handle attached to the neck of the vessel. The lekythos was used for anointing dead bodies of unmarried men and many lekythoi are found in tombs. The images on lekythoi were often...
, a type of
pottery in ancient GreeceThanks to its relative durability, pottery is a large part of the archaeological record of Ancient Greece, and because there is so much of it it has exerted a disproportionately large influence on our understanding of Greek society...
used for holding oil in funerary ritual). In the
BavarianBavarian is the adjective form of the German state of Bavaria, and refers to people of ancestry from Bavaria. Bavarian may also refer to:* Austro-Bavarian, a group of closely related dialects of German, spoken in parts of Bavaria, most of Austria and the Alto Adige/Südtiro* Bavarian cream, a...
tradition, a king's heart would be placed in the urn upon his death (as happened with King
Otto of BavariaOtto I of Bavaria , was King of Bavaria from 1886 to 1913. He was the son of Maximilian II and his wife, Marie of Prussia, and younger brother of Ludwig II...
in 1916).
RomansAncient Rome was a civilization that grew out of a small agricultural community founded on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 10th century BC. Located along the Mediterranean Sea, it became one of the largest empires in the ancient world....
placed the urns in a niche in a collective
tombA tomb is a repository for the remains of the dead. It is generally any structurally enclosed interment space or burial chamber, of varying sizes...
called a
columbariumA columbarium is a place for the respectful and usually public storage of cinerary urns...
(literally,
dovecoteA dovecote or dovecot is a building intended to house pigeons or doves. Dovecotes may be square or circular free-standing structures or built into the end of a house or barn. They generally contain pigeonholes for the birds to nest. Pigeons and doves were an important food source historically in...
. The interior of a dovecote usually has niches to house
dovesDoves are an English alt rock band, originating from Wilmslow. The band comprises brothers Jez Williams and Andy Williams , and Jimi Goodwin . The members started working seriously together after meeting at The Haçienda in Manchester...
.
The discovery of a
Bronze AgeThe Bronze Age of a culture is the period when the most advanced metalworking in that culture utilised bronze. This could either have been based on the local smelting of copper and tin from ores, or trading for bronze from production areas elsewhere...
urn burial in Norfolk, England prompted Sir
Thomas BrowneSir Thomas Browne was an English author of varied works which disclose his wide learning in diverse fields including medicine, religion, science and the esoteric....
to carefully describe the antiquities found. He expanded his study to survey burial and funerary customs, ancient and current, and published it as
Hydriotaphia or Urn BurialHydriotaphia, Urn Burial, or a Discourse of the Sepulchral Urns lately found in Norfolk, is a work by Sir Thomas Browne, published in 1658 as the first part of a two-part work that concludes with The Garden of Cyrus....
(1658).
Other urns
The AshesThe Ashes is a Test cricket series played between England and Australia. It is one of international cricket's most celebrated rivalries and dates back to 1882. It is currently played biennially, alternately in the United Kingdom and Australia. Since cricket is a summer game, the venues being in...
, the prize in the biennial
Test cricketTest cricket is the longest form of the sport of cricket. It is generally considered the ultimate test of playing ability in the sport.The name "Test" may have arisen from the idea that the matches are a "test of strength and competency" between the sides involved...
competition between
EnglandThe England cricket team is the cricket team which represents England and Wales. Since 1 January 1997 it has been governed by the England and Wales Cricket Board , having been previously governed by Marylebone Cricket Club from 1903 until the end of 1996.England and Australia were the first teams...
and
AustraliaThe Australian cricket team is the national cricket team of Australia. It is the joint oldest team in Test cricket, having played in the first Test match in 1877 ....
, are contained in a miniature urn.
Urns are a common form of
architectural detailFor a topical guide to this subject, see Outline of architecture. Architecture is the art and science of designing and constructing buildings and other physical structures for human shelter or use....
and
garden ornamentA garden ornament is an item used for garden decoration. The category can include fountains, statues, sundials, masks, chimes, weathervanes, gnomes and other non-necessities. The first period in which garden ornaments became common in the West is Roman gardens. A great many examples have been...
. Well-known ornamental urns include the
Waterloo VaseThe Waterloo Vase is a great urn, 15ft high and weighing 20 tons, fashioned from a single piece of Carrara marble. Since 1906, it has been used as a garden ornament in the garden of Buckingham Palace, London....
.
In mathematics, an
urn problemIn statistics, an urn problem is an idealized thought experiment in which some objects of real interest are represented as colored balls in an urn or other container....
is a
thought experimentA thought experiment, sometimes called a gedankenexperiment in German, is a proposal for an experiment that would test or illuminate a hypothesis or theory....
in
probability theoryProbability theory is the branch of mathematics concerned with analysis of random phenomena. The central objects of probability theory are random variables, stochastic processes, and events: mathematical abstractions of non-deterministic events or measured quantities that may either be single...
.
A tea urn is a heated metal container (
Electric water boilerAn electric water boiler, also sometimes called an electric dispensing pot, electric water heater, electric water urn, or electric kettle, is a consumer electronics small appliance used for boiling water and possibly maintaining it at a constant temperature...
) traditionally used to brew tea or boil water in large quantities in factories, canteens or churches, that is, it is not usually found in domestic use. Like a
samovarA samovar is a heated metal container traditionally used to heat and boil water in and around Russia, as well as in other Central, South-Eastern, Eastern European countries, and in the Middle-East...
it has a small tap near the base for extracting either tea or hot water.