This bowl was said to have been found embedded in a church tower in the city of Pisa in Italy. Numerous ceramic vessels have been embedded in Italian church facades, especially in the coastal towns on the west coast and most commonly in Pisa. These vessels, or 'bacini' in Italian, were primarily imports from lands bordering the Mediterranean, east and west. It is significant that a large number of these bacini are found in and around Pisa because the Pisans and Genoese were prominent in the Mediterranean trade from the 10th century on into the 13th century. Undoubtedly, these bacini were brought back by Pisan and Genoese shipping merchants and were then given to local institutions who prized their decoration.

This bowl is covered with a thin layer of tin-opacfied lead glaze and then painted with oxides of copper and iron and possibly also antimony. The border decoration is characteristic of decoration produced on vessels in Sicily which are known as 'Gela ware'. Gela is a town on the southern coast of Sicily and it is known that ceramic production has occurred here for over two thousand years. Many ceramics have been excavated around Gela with this characteristic border decoration. However, it is also found in the southern Italian region of Apulia which has many shared characteristics with Gela type of ceramics. Ultimately, the ceramics produced in these two areas derive from North African ceramics.

The painted tin glaze technique of decorating ceramics began in the Middle East and spread along the Mediterranean trade routes. The technique was adopted in pottery centres which were probably established during the Roman period. It is known that Pisan and Genoese shipping merchants had their own trade centres in North Africa. It is likely that these ceramic techniques were introduced into Italy, into the south and into the Tuscan and Umbrian regions, by these shipping merchants.

Archaeologists have been excavating in and near Savona in the Ligurian region near Genova for over forty years. Ceramic finds indicate that lead and tin-opacified lead glazing of ceramics began here around the year 1200. Excavations in southern Italy have indicated that tin-glazing began shortly after this date. It seems likely that tin -glazed ceramics imported from North Africa into Sicily and Southern Italy and also directly into Liguria influenced the start of Italian tin glaze production.