Object Type
Soup tureens were first used in Britain in the early 18th century, having evolved from vessels used at Court in France.

Use
From the mid-17th century, all the highest levels of society throughout Europe followed a system of formal dining that originated in France and which came to be known as 'service à la française'. This practice was for all the dishes of one course to be laid out on the table at one time, arranged in a strictly symmetrical pattern. When each course was completed, the dishes were removed and replaced by the next course. The first course began with soup, served in tureens of an oval, 'bombé' form. Even the ingredients of soup had their own social hierarchy: truffles ranked first, followed by fungi, then such vegetables as artichokes, cauliflower, broccoli, spinach and peas. Such root vegetables as carrots and turnips were classified as the most humble of all.

Decoration
The decoration of the grandest tureens usually alluded to the contents within. These were boldly and naturalistically modelled in still-lives, comprising game, seafood or vegetables. The popular use of vegetables as ornament may have reflected the fashionable interest in the great advances made in kitchen-gardening in northern Europe. British silversmiths of the 1760s were greatly influenced by such printed sources as Livre des Légumes (1734) after works by Juste-Aurèle Meissonnier, or Thomas Germain's Eléments d'Orfevrerie (1748), and particularly by the celebrated services executed for Louis XV by Germain, which had the most ornate culinary compositions as finials. The finial on this example is in the form of a turnip, the decoration of the body, handles and feet in the form of leafy celery stalks.