Woodcarving was one of the branches of the applied arts in which efforts had been made in Britain to improve in the decade following the Great Exhibition (1851). In an attempt to encourage native talent, organisations such as the Society of Arts and the Council of the Architectural Museum offered prizes to workmen, including carvers.

The carver responsible for this panel was William Henry Baylis (1836–1909). He was born in Cheltenham and given the sensitive handling of foliage evident in his work it may be no coincidence that his father was a gardener. Baylis operated his own small workshop, and his exhibits were praised at the London International Exhibition of 1862 for ‘a repose and vigorous touch which are not often united in so young an artist’; he was also awarded a medal.

Baylis supplied carving to cabinetmakers when they required high-quality carving. A carved oak bookcase made by the London firm of Howard & Sons for the businessman John Jones incorporated carvings by Baylis. In 1867 Jones lent the bookcase to the International Exhibition in Paris, where one critic, J.H. Pollen, noted: 'the spandrils [sic] of the door frames are decorated with carved foliage, wiry and dry, but elegantly composed.' Jones later bequeathed the bookcase to the V&A (1080-1882). It is quite possible that Baylis also carved some elements of a related bookcase that belonged to Jones (1081-1882).