Small low, covered tureens and matching stands like this were used for serving soups, bouillon and other similar foodstuffs in private apartments at breakfast, through the long hours of the toilette and to ill or disabled people in bed. In France such a tureen would be called an 'écuelle' and in German it was sometimes called a 'Wöchnerinnterrine' or 'maternity tureen'. However, while they certainly were used to serve restorative foods to women after chilbirth, they were much more widely used by women as well as by men. Some (but not this one) have covers fitted with feet, enabling this part to be reversed to serve as a plate for dealing with meat or marrow bones. They were not made as part of a dinner service, but were a standard component of toilet services. Being made for personal use, they were usually finely decorated. They were made in porcelain, silver and other materials.

The enamelled decoration on this piece is very very finely executed with a distinctive and highly unusual form of stippling (painting in small dots of colour). It has been attributed to the Vienna court painter Christian Frey, whose initials 'CF' occur on a gold-mounted Du Paquier porcelain tureen painted with similar subjects in this style, and which is further enriched with diamonds and hardstone cameos.