An object in which its shape or decoration copies the form it had been when made from another material or by another technique. For example, a pot would be decorated to make it look similar to a vessel of basketry, skin, or other material. In some cases, it is an artifact which represents in decorative form a feature which was originally functional. A decorative bow attached to a shoe is a skeuomorph of the laces once used to tie it; triangular shapes drawn below handles on pottery are skeuomorphs of the metal plates by which the handles on metal prototypes were attached; and the semicircular mark on the back of a teaspoon represents the broadening of the handle where it was soldered to the bowl when it used to be made in two pieces. Frequently a skeuomorph may yield important information about extinct types, especially when organic materials like basketry are recorded in this way.