In contrast to traditional stained glass, which was coloured with metallic oxides when molten, this fragment was decorated using a new technique introduced in England in the early 14th century. This consisted of painting a compound of silver on the back of the glass. After firing in a kiln, the silver compound would turn yellow. Many panels from the 14th and 15th centuries are decorated simply in yellow (silver) stain and highlighted with a brown-black pigment.

This decorated pane of glass is a small section of the border of a larger panel. The panel probably had a figure of a saint under a canopy, and the sides of the panel would have contained small rectangular panes of glass which were painted and stained with heraldic emblems such as the fleur-de-lys as seen here. Heraldic emblems like the fleur-de-lys and the lion were very popular and were standard decorative devices used by stained glass painters in the 14th and 15th centuries.

The religious conflicts that affected the British Isles in the 16th and 17th centuries had a devastating effect upon the decorative arts and furnishings of the Christian church. Much of the medieval stained glass in churches and cathedrals was damaged and only survives in a fragmentary state.