This luncheon tray was designed for Minton by Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin, one of the leading designers of the Gothic revival in England. Pugin was very supportive of Minton's revival of the medieval technique of inlaid (or encaustic) tiles, which involved carving out sections of clay and filling the resulting grooves with different colourd slip, (liquid clay) to create a pattern. Such tiles could be used in the widespread restoration of Medieval churches and in Pugin's work on the Palace of Westminster. The inlaid technique was also employed on other wares, as with this tray.

Pugin created a number designs for Minton, including tiles and tableware. One of their most high profile collaborations was the Medieval Court at the 1851 Great Exhibition, for which Pugin designed majolica glazed tiles for the great stove exhibited there.