This silver coffee pot in the neo-classical style bears the mark of one of the Bateman partnerships. The family run firm were a large London based silversmith's which made good quality standardised tableware for middleclass consumers. The lid is adorned by a pineapple carved from stained ivory. The pineapple, which originated in the Americas and the West Indies, was a common symbol of hospitality. The use of the pineapple as a decorative feature shows how fashionable the exotic New World was and hints at how close Britain's ties to this region were.

Widely drunk throughout the Middle East, coffee was introduced to Europe by Turkish traders in the early 17th century. Britain was at first dependant upon imports from the Middle East but slowly began to develop its own coffee industry through introducing the crop to plantations in Jamaica and other West Indian colonies. These plantations relied on the labour of Africans who were sold to British traders on the west coast of Africa as slaves and transported across the Atlantic.