It is exceptionally rare to find a beehive waterpot of this period decorated deliberately in a copper-green glaze rather than fired to the well-known peachbloom tone. While it is possible to achieve accidentally a mottled green effect by slightly underfiring this complicated mineral combination in the kiln, it is clear that the present waterpot was intended to have this specific even green colour.
Many other colour variants have been reproduced: for example in Seki Toji Zenshu, vol.12, pl.50; in the Baur Collection, vol.2, nos.305, 310, 313-316. The colour varies depending on the exact firing but a most unusual deliberate variation is in the Percival David Foundation; see R. Scott, Guide, op. cit., no.117 for a yellow-glazed example, compared with 115, the more normal peachbloom. A variant on the form where the archaistic dragon roundels are left in shallow relief under a clear 'moon-white' glaze revealing the fine white porcelain body is illustrated by J. Ayers, Chinese Ceramics: the Koger Collection, 1985, no.139.

Although these are known to collectors in the West as 'beehive' waterpots, they are known in China as 'chicken coop' vessels, since they are considered to resemble basket work holders for poultry. It was S.W. Bushell who first referred to them as taibei zun when he compared them with the wine jar against which the famous and legendary poet Li Taibe is customarily portrayed in a drunken stupor; see his comments in Oriental Ceramic Art, p.308