During the 18th century dessert was the course on which the greatest effort and expense were lavished. The food served and the fine porcelain which accompanied it reflected the wealth and good taste of the host, however it also provides a stark contrast to the atrocities of the transatlantic slave trade which produced many of the objects and food so hirely desired during this course, such as sugar, spice, glass, porcelain, etc.

This richly decorated figure, in the form of a kneeling black man holding a shell, was probably used for serving dessert items. The shell would have contained dry sweetmeats. This object aestheticizes the exploitation of black people, this is further emphasised by the fact that he is shown in a vulnerable and subservient position, kneeling to the white colonial structures which have imprisoned him. A shocking estimated 75% of all enslaved Africans crossing the Atlantic were destined, at least at the beginning, to work in sugar, this object must be understood within this wider global context of the British Empire and its colonial power structures.