Looks like it might be iron to me....which would be why it has been painted.
"Terra cotta" means baked earth....fired clay....common clay flower pots are terra cotta....it's hard to imitate!
Paint stripper will remove the paint without getting any possible lead particles into the air.
As to why it was painted? who knows, for the same reason people paint nice old oak or walnut furniture? I once bought a lovely old salt glazed crock that was painted bright blue. There is no accounting for taste.
But perhaps it was painted to hide the rust....or to keep it from rusting.

At the edges that have weathered, it appears to be concrete. Some cast concrete garden furnishings were quite nice, having been made with white marble dust to have a very authentic glinty surface.

Casey

What is the size? Compared to the blinds in the background it appears to be a small plant pot on a countertop. Also seems to have been painted over many times judging by the "chippy" look.

Did you turn it over to check the bottom? If it was painted as well, but there are drainage holes, you can look @ the edges of holes to see if it's terracotta. No matter what the material, it looks pretty cool (& may have been created to look like this intentionally) - if you're into the shabby vintage look, that is...

linda, I understand that terra cotta is a particular type of clay. It's expensive. What I thought was unusual here was that the white paint appears to be covering another color layer at the top that is the color of terra cotta clay. Was that a second paint layer or actual terra cotta. I don't have the piece in my hands yet and I was just trying to line up my due diligence for when it arrives.

Justin, it is very small, a countertop planter.

Carol, I like pieces that suggest ancient Roman gardens.

Nope....terra cotta i ordinary brown or red clay....used since ancient times for statues, vessels to hold water or oil, roofs, flower pots and statuary....as in a buried Chinese army.
Did you buy it without knowing what it was?

Terra cotta is NOT ordinary clay. Terracotta is a type of Clay, and Clay is a type of Ceramic. See Best Answer for this question:

https://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20091020114605AAB8euL

That said, it is not at all clear which statement I made you were disagreeing with.

I have no idea what I bought, and for the low price I paid I do not really care. That said I have normal human curiosity about it and want to satisfy that. As a worst case, I have a lovely planter.

No...the definition of ceramic is something made of clay hardened by heat. It is a general term...terracotta is ceramic as is porcelain.
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/ceramic
Earthenware is another term used for things made of clay>
Stoneware is a term used for a vitrified earthenware, fired at a temperature high enough that some of the sillca parts melt and fuse. Porcelain is a particularly fine textured clay, fired at a high temperature so that it vitrifies.
Terracotta is a fired, unglazed ceramic made from common brown or tan clay.
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/terra%E2%80%93cotta

Ceramic us a term used to describe stuff made from clay, earthenware is a term used to describe un vitrified but fired ceramics. Porcelain is the term describing high fired ware made from a fine white kaolin clay and fired at a higher temperature than other clay ware. Terracotta is the term used for the common brown clay used for utilitarian things like flower pots, roof tiles, floor tiles as well as decorative items. It's the cheapest and most unrefined of the clays.

1) All clay is ceramic. Not all ceramic is clay.

2) All terra cotta clay is clay. Not all clay is terra cotta clay.

Terra cotta is both used as a color word, signifying a coloration of clay or ceramic, as well as a word used to describe a particular type of clay. The color use of "terra cotta" is a different use of the term from "terra cotta clay" which is a specific formulation and treatment of clay. Many ceramic pots are described as "terra cotta color" when they do not use terra cotta clay, and that creates a lot of confusion about what terra cotta means. Pots at a store like Lowes or Home Depot marked as "terra cotta" are often not terra cotta clay.

See the table in this article that describes types of clay and see the table a few pages down:

https://sites.google.com/site/meeneecat/educational-materials/clay-types-geological-origins-working-properties-gccceramics

Please note that none of the types of clay listed here are considered terra cotta clay:

* porcelain

* stoneware (many subtypes)

* earthenware (many subtypes)

Out of the 12 types of clay listed in that article, only two are rightly called terra cotta clay.

I don't make clay so I don't understand why terra cotta pots and molded items always sell for nearly twice as much as non terra cotta pots. Maybe it is an issue with fragility of the clay making manufacturing more difficult?

Sadly, I received the planter and it is a total loss in shipping. Looking at the interior of the sidewall views, the pot has become an entirely white material. It looks like this was some kind of clay and over time it just deteriorated and lost all of its wall strength. Does anyone have any idea on what happened here, and what was the original material?

Sorry I know opening the box must have been a big disappointment.

I was thinking the same. You might be able to glue it back together. If the material is chalky & scrapes away easily w/ your fingernail, it probably is plaster, If it's harder, then it could be concrete or a white clay...

It is very chalky, so maybe plaster. I didn't realize plaster would harden to a chalky consistency.

I hope you didn't pay much. Unfired bisque painted to look old?????

It may be relatively new and painted to look like terra cotta and then painted again. If it is old, there was a plaster material called staff that was used to build buildings for the world's fairs way back because they were temporary buildings. Some of the decorative pieces were also made of staff.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Staff_(building_material)