This bottle is one of two bottles form the same set in the V&A. Other pairs or single bottles of this type with decoration attributed to Ignaz Preissler are known. Most have similar mythological scenes with naked or scantily clad figures, often combined with a Rhine landscape on the back. Ignaz Preissler was an independent decorator of porcelain and glass. He used a small range of low-firing enamel colours on blanks he derived from different sources. This type of bottle was used for spirits. An even number of such bottles would fit in wooden box or 'cabinet', each bottle containing a different type of spirit.
The bacchanalian scene on this bottle probably shows the drunken Silenus, a rural God in Greek mythology and one of the followers of the god of wine, Bacchus. The scene is alomost certainly derived from an engraving. As somewhat simalar scene is the subject of a painting by Otto van Veen (1556-1629), PUTTI ENACTING A BACCHANALIAN SCENE, kept in the Green Closet at Ham House, Richmond-upon-Thames (National Trust).