These vases are significantly antiqued to look old. They have purposeful stains, pitting and even some sort ofmaterial over the top of the ceramic on one of them that looks like it sat at the bottom of the ocean and has salt and shell material on it. The photos on line nor does the description adequately demonstrate this so when you open the package you'll think they've been damaged in some way. At first I really didn't like it but they have grown on me. I bought them at a significant discount so for me, I'll keep them as they are nice sized, perfect color for me. If I would have paid full price I would have returned them.