We know that the pot became the vase rather than the other way around. Of course! Objects to preserve useful things become objects to preserve decoration only once you get comfortable. You can sculpt in your underpants, but somebody somewhere had to make them pants first. Never in the history of mankind did a potter spin pots in the desert until they all got dry and cracked up together, swallowed by sands.
Carried by winds, the Ancient Greek Khemeu becomes the Arabic al-kīmiyā, later the medieaval French alchymia and finally alchemy. You know, transmutation: The serious attempt to turn one base thing into another more noble thing. Ha.