TGWS - 13-1-2020 at 11:43
What is the name of this type of container?
Does it serve a practical purpose as reagent storage or is it for display purposes only?
Why is it shaped the way that it is...? 
DavidJR - 13-1-2020 at 11:49
Uhh... I'd call that a butt plug.
TGWS - 13-1-2020 at 11:56
Heh, some of the reagents I've seen put into these, I'm not sure I'd like to wiggle one up the back passage and meet the dirty consequences - both
chemically and mentally scarring.
karlos³ - 13-1-2020 at 12:18
I think it is for display purposes only, as I've only seen containers with this form on chinese retail markets.
I don't know what a butt plug shaped container has for a purpose anyway, I can't think of any other than making the reagent better visible(but then
again, you just see white or multiple colored powders, could be anything, even spices? Certainly a bad choice without amber glass.).
TGWS - 13-1-2020 at 13:05
Yeah, I suppose that makes sense.
I can just imagine a dodgy company fobbing off some dirt from outside as something really expensive.
The shape must be an added bonus. 
SWIM - 14-1-2020 at 09:29
I have seen old American display bottles with a similar, but less tapered shape.
They were in old Pharmacies for display purposes.
I can't find a picture of one, but in shape they resemble this:https://d3f650ayx9w00n.cloudfront.net/940/54215-05.jpg
Which is also some sort of butt-plug.
These bottles are also called seed bottles and used to display seeds as well. (Both the columnar and conical forms)
I have always assumed these were to allow nudist element collectors carry their samples around without having to have their hands full.
No, actually I look at these and think: "There must have been some horrifying accidents with these being mis-used. Too Brittle."
[Edited on 14-1-2020 by SWIM]
karlos³ - 14-1-2020 at 12:54
Yeah, who of us doesn't think stuff like "today I'm going to go outside completely nude, but I need to carry my tellurium sample with me in a large
body orifice", at least from time to time? 
I have thoughts like this several times everyday! 
draculic acid69 - 14-1-2020 at 16:19
I'd call it a glass egg.or buttplug.for some reason every chem company on Alibaba use it for display purposes on there pages.maybe it started out as a
dare or inside joke to use a buttplug on there company page without it getting flagged as sexual content and then it became traditional to use a
hollow buttplug to display powders on Alibaba.
I've never seen them on any other website or anywhere else and they don't look too functional
Armus_ - 15-1-2020 at 06:57
the only practical use for these is for prisoners to actively carry drugs XD
Morgan - 15-1-2020 at 09:08
Ebay has several listing using the words "lab glass seed bottle" sometimes followed by the words specimen bottle, sample bottle.
SWIM - 15-1-2020 at 12:37
This actually brings up an interesting question:
How old is the seed bottle?
How old is the butt plug?
Were they independent inventions, or was the butt-plug form borrowed from seed bottles?
Maybe some creative Pharmacist back in the early 20th century thought of a different use for his/her display bottles and later they were copied in
form by sex toy producers.
NOTE:
The 'orificial therapy' dilators sold in the early 20th century by some American doctor who insisted tight sphincters lead to neuroses seem to have
used a different form unrelated to the seed bottle/modern butt plug form.
(They show up sometimes in auctions of quack medical devices.)