Altar vessels were used for making offerings of food, flowers and wine besides burning candles and incense sticks. Altar trays such as this example could have used to hold wine cups. They were usually made of porcelain and occasionally of silver. Porcelain of different colours were used at the different altars in Peranakan Chinese homes. Yellow enamelled wares were reserved for use on the grand altar while 'famille rose' porcelain was most likely to have been used at the ancestral altar.
