This paper considers two vessels, one found at Silchester in Hampshire, the other at Flexford, near Guildford in Surrey. Both are products of the samian workshops at Rheinzabern and both owe their design to metal prototypes. Neither has any apparent known parallel for its combination of form and decoration and both are a valuable reminder that even in such a large enterprise as the samian potteries individual forms could be made, perhaps in response to a specific request or as experiments by the potters. They also form an important contribution to our knowledge of late samian ware in Britain and add to previous evidence for the use of samian in ritual contexts.