This is one of six related silver-gilt dishes in the V&A collections which may originally have been part of a larger group of twelve. They are rare examples of silver intended for dessert, or 'banqueting', a costly course of fruits and sweetmeats which came after the main meal and was often enjoyed in a separate location. At the royal palaces of Hampton Court and Nonesuch, a select few (perhaps six to eight people) would have had their senses pleased in an intimate banqueting house where all accoutrements were as luxurious as the food served. Dessert was an opportunity for hosts to flatter guests with very expensive rareities such as refined sugar from Cyprus or Madeira. A silver dish for meat would have been plain, but dessert dishes, like this one, were elaborately decorated with fine engraving or chasing (designs hammered into relief) and were often gilded. Sometimes they were made from another precious material such as mother of pearl, painted glass or tortoiseshell.

The mid 17th century coat of arms engraved on the V&A dishes hides an earlier erased coat of arms. Faint traces of the earlier one can be seen, enough to identify the original owner as William Cecil, 1st Lord Burghley, who was Lord Treasurer and chief advisor to Elizabeth I and one of the richest and most accomplished patrons of the arts of the 16th century. The lack of wear on the dishes raises the possibility that while they followed the pattern of dessert dishes, they may have been used primarily for display on a sideboard or 'buffet' rather than for use. The exquisite and complex scheme of engraving on each dish would certainly be seen to better advantage. The engraver combines a border of fashionable arabesque ornament (scrolls of pointed leaves) encompassing birds, animals and monsters with fantastical marine scenes in the well of each dish surrounding a biblical scene in the centre.