During the eighth century Iraqi potters began to apply a lustring technique to their work. Taken from glass production, the lustre was created by applying metal compounds to the surface of a usually tin-glazed vessel, which was then submitted to a reduction firing. During this firing, the air supply is reduced and the resulting carbon monoxide reacts with the metallic compounds converting them in to an irridescent film. Islamic lustre ware was imported in to Italy and can still be seen in the form of basins, or bacini, embedded in the walls of some churches.

By the thirteenth century, the lustring technique had spread through the Islamic world to southern Spain from where it gradually spread northward in to Christian territory. Active trade between the ports of Mansises and Pisa introduced lustreware to Italy and by the second half of the fifteenth century, the technique had been mastered by the potters at Deruta and shortly after at Gubbio. The former potteries specialised in a straw-coloured lustre, whereas the latter developed a rich ruby-coloured sheen.

This plate is painted with the idealised portrait of a female figure, identified as Baldasina. The exchange of costly gifts formed an important part of the complex ritual of Renaissance courtship. Lustre ware, therefore, conformed entirely with the contemporary desire for conspicuous consumption and display.