This tin-glazed earthenware pot is known as 'Malling' ware. The Latin inscription on the silver mounts records the ownership of the pot by various members of the Miller family in the 17th century. Whilst the earthenware was produced around 1600, the mounts were made half a century later, ca.1658.

Outside the wealthiest court circles, 17th-century silver was used primarily for eating and drinking. The dining table was the heart of social activity, and novelty items were made for fashionable new drinks flavoured with spices and drinking games. The range of British silver for the home from this period (the first for which a representative quantity survives) demonstrates increasing foreign influences from France, the Netherlands and Portugal. The rising demand for fashionably decorated European silver from the 1660s onwards reflects Britain's new wealth and political stability.

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. Arthur Gilbert donated his extraordinary collection to Britain in 1996.