This mounted coffee pot, one of a pair, belonged to the collection of William Beckford (1760-1844) of Fonthill Abbey. Beckford accumulated an important and impressive collection of objects, including a vast amount of Chinese ceramics. He is well known for having his ceramics mounted. This porcelain is Chinese Ch'ien-lung ca.1736. The London silversmith James Aldridge added silver mounts to these coffee pots in 1820-21. Aldridge also engraved silver in imitation of enamelled decoration on Chinese porcelain.

The 18th century saw an emerging class of rich citizens who used their acquired wealth to indulge a passion for beautiful objects. The Renaissance tradition of the treasury or Schatzkammer, a special room for displaying exotic artefacts, continued in the 18th and 19th centuries. Other types of display included presentation plate, often of solid gold, which in the 18th century was worth about twenty times the value of silver.

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.