This basket, wrought to look like woven ears of wheat, was made for the wealthy collector and patron, William Beckford (1760-1844) of Fonthill Abbey. Silver baskets were normally used to serve bread at the dinner table, but this one is extremely heavy and thus was most probably intended for display only.

By the early 19th century, the immense wealth of Britain's richest citizens enabled them to patronise the luxury trades of coach-builders, cabinet-makers and silversmiths. The Prince Regent (later George IV) and his aristocratic contemporaries set the style of what became known as the Regency period. They were indebted to the most prestigious firm of London goldsmiths of the age, Rundell, Bridge & Rundell. The company supplied silver at the forefront of fashion. Their large design studio included important artists such as John Flaxman and Jean-Jacques Boileau.

Sir Arthur Gilbert and his wife Rosalinde formed one of the world's great decorative art collections, including silver, mosaics, enamelled portrait miniatures and gold boxes. They also collected a pair of Chinese Ch'ien-lung porcelain coffee pots ca.1736 to which the London silversmith James Aldridge added silver mounts for William Beckford in 1820-21 and a carved agate cup with with cast and engraved gilded silver mounts, 1815-20. Arthur Gilbert donated his extraordinary collection to Britain in 1996.