This is a butter dish.
It's minimalistic design was made to be easy to manufacture, and the most simply possible keep the butter and the lid in place with the two bumps. Whereas the space under the base is made, not just for the style, but to take and hold the whole.

Initially it was intended for the local pottery course. But before we build it with clay, I made a prototype (on a dimension3D)... so maybe it will interest people who have a 3Dprinter (even more if you can print ceramic) :)

You can see more pictures here : http://www.behance.net/gallery/Beurrier--Butter-dish/557219
And the making-of, where we can see the printed and the clay model here : http://watsdesign.blogspot.com/2010/06/beurrier-open-source.html

Just print the two part (base & couvercle) and that's it ! Bon appétit ;)