This pot is part of a set formed of two tea caddies and a sugar bowl. Tea drinking was a fashionable activity throughout the eighteenth century. Brought to the tea table in the drawing room, the lady of the house would have handled objects like these herself when serving friends. This set's rococo ornament, veering from the naturalistic to the fantastical, demonstrates how changing tastes took centre stage at the table in both senses of the word.

Sir Arthur and Rosalinde Gilbert began collecting in the 1960s and over a period of 40 years formed one of the world’s great private collections of decorative arts. The collection consists of over 800 objects from the fields of European gold and silver, Italian mosaics and hardstone, portrait enamels and gold boxes. Sir Arthur Gilbert donated his extraordinary collection to Britain in 1996 to be housed at Somerset House, London, having previously been displayed at Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA). In 2008 the collection was moved to dedicated galleries in the V&A, where a selection has been on permanent display ever since.