Ceramic wood-burning stoves for the purpose of interior heating were widely used in northern Europe by the fifteenth century. The typical stove took the form of a large, free-standing firebox supported on legs and surmounted by a tower to maximise the radiation of heat. The stove would typically have been positioned against a wall in which openings had been made to connect to a stoke hole and flue at the rear. Constructed from thick moulded tiles, with protruding ridges on the reverse to form heat-retaining cavities, the technique of their production was probably introduced to England by German potters working in the Surrey-Hampshire borders. However, the use of tile-stoves never caught on in England and seems to have been restricted to the wealthiest houses and ecclesiastical establishments of London and the south east.

The decorative use of royal arms and badges was fully supported by the Tudor monarchs who took a keen interest in the promotion of their dynasty and their right to the throne of England. Royal heraldry, therefore, became one of the most prolific motifs in the English Renaissance, manifesting itself on a wide range of domestic interior surfaces. Henry VIII (1509-47) in particular was committed to raising the status of the monarchy. The inscription 'ER' on this tile probably refers to Edward VI (1547-53), although it may be from the reign of his sister, Elizabeth I (1558-1603), and is almost indistinguishable from earlier examples bearing the initials of their father, Henry VIII.