This piece is part of the Royal College of Art Visiting Artists Collection. Every year from 1987 to 2006, while David Watkins was Professor of Goldsmithing, Silversmithing, Metalwork and Jewellery at the RCA, he invited four jewellers and silversmiths from outside Britain to give a week-long masterclass. The artists brought diverse skills, aesthetics and approaches. The first call on their time was to interact closely with the students. In addition, although concentrating on their teaching and working in an unfamiliar studio, each artist generously made an object for the RCA's collection. The Royal College of Art Visiting Artists Collection, now transferred to the V&A, is a major document of international contemporary jewellery, a tribute both to the artists and to the vibrancy of the RCA as a teaching institution.

The Finnish silversmith Matti Tainio was born in 1967. In his masterclass at the RCA he brought in food and drink from Finland and asked the students to design suitable vessels to serve them in. They were hammered from sheet metal and assembled by soldering. The black surface colouring is made using the Japanese alloy shibuichi which has a high copper content which turns black when heated and cooled slowly. The three bowls were his response, designed to serve British treats. The bowls were a study for a piece he subsequently exhibited in the exhibition 'Perinteen Rakas Taakka / Dear Burden of Tradition' at the Designmuseum in Helsinki.