This Apostle probably comes from the upper part of a rood-screen and is one of twelve panels held in the Museum said to have come from a church in the town or province of Zamora, Spain (inv.nos. A.148 to 159-1922). The Apostles would have stood in a line just below the rood (a large figure of the crucified Christ). Each figure is identified by the inscription on his scroll and by a specific attribute, or symbol. Here St Peter is shown carrying the remainder of his emblem, the Keys of Heaven.

The carving of alabaster, mostly quarried in Tutbury and Chellaston near Nottingham, took on industrial proportions in England between the middle of the 14th and the early 16th centuries. The market for altarpieces and smaller devotional images was a large one. It included not only religious foundations but also the merchant classes. Many hundreds of English alabasters were exported, some as far afield as Iceland and Santiago de Compostela in north-west Spain.
Alabaster - a form of gypsum - is a comparatively soft material and is therefore easy to carve. It can also be polished. Its natural colour was especially useful for the representation of faces and flesh, which would normally remain unpainted. The finished alabaster panels in altarpieces of this type were fixed into position in the wooden frame by means of lead wires. They were embedded in the backs of the panels, fed through holes in the frame and secured.