Until the mid 16th century, it was the custom for food to be eaten either from pieces of bread or slabs of wood known as ‘trenchers’. Thereafter, at least among the nobility, silver plates were more commonly used. However, surviving examples, even from the first half of the 17th century, are rare, largely due to the melting of all types of silver during the English Civil War. By the 18th century, the coming of the Rococo style led to the use of serpentine borders on plates, either moulded or with shellwork. By 1760, the gadrooned border, like that seen here, returned to favour in both silver and Sheffield plate examples.

Sheffield plate originated, with the discovery in 1742, that bars of silver and copper, in unequal proportions, fused by heating under pressure, could be rolled into sheets of laminated metal and worked like silver. The industry this material created flourished for about 100 years until superseded by electroplating in the 1840s.