By the early 16th century, brass dishes became greater in diameter, the depressions shallower and the flanges of the rims correspondingly wider. Pictorial themes continued to be used in decoration but the wider bases afforded scope for an increasing use of abstract decoration. A central motif might be bounded by one or two concentric bands of decoration of either interlaced scroll-like waves or lettering. This was not necessarily embossed with punches in the traditional manner but was often cast in the mould at an earlier stage in manufacturer. On this 17th-century dish the design is repoussé, a type of embossing in which the object is hammered from the back to create a design in relief.

The subject in the centre alludes to a passage from the Old Testament which describes the two men sent ahead by Moses to spy out the land of Canaan and who cut a bunch of grapes and carried it back on a pole. The theme of the grapes borne on a pole has its place in Christian art as a prefiguration of Christ on the cross.

The production of brass bowls was centred in Nuremberg but not exclusively. Other centres of brass production were Dinant in Flanders and its surrounding area, from Bouvignes to Aachen, where this dish probably originated. Techniques and styles were copied with equal facility everywhere so that today it is difficult to assign a place of manufacture within northern Europe to any dish produced during the 16th and 17th centuries. One reason for this is that dishes exported form this area provided prototypes for others to follow.