Silver often had commemorative significance alongside functional value. This small tankard was made 1646-7, yet in the late 1700s or early 1800s it was engraved with the name of Maria Arabella Lansdowne (d.1833), who married Lord Lansdowne in 1805. The inscription suggests that the piece was presented as a gift to Lady Lansdowne.

Outside the wealthiest court circles, 17th-century silver was used primarily for eating and drinking. The dining table was the heart of social activity, and novelty items were made for fashionable new drinks flavoured with spices and drinking games. The range of British silver for the home from this period (the first for which a representative quantity survives) demonstrates increasing foreign influences from France, the Netherlands and Portugal. The rising demand for fashionably decorated European silver from the 1660s onwards reflects Britain's new wealth and political stability.

Sir Arthur Gilbert and his wife Rosalinde formed one of the world's great decorative art collections, including silver, mosaics, enamelled portrait miniatures and gold boxes. Arthur Gilbert donated his extraordinary collection to Britain in 1996.