The plate was probably from a set of 24 that were specially commissioned by Horace Walpole from a Venice glasshouse as a souvenir of his visit in 1741. The plates, each of which was painted with a different view of Venice, were almost certainly never used, but were intended for display. By 1774 they displayed in Walpole's China Room at his villa at Strawberry Hill (near Twickenham west of London).

Horace Walpole, the 4th Earl of Orford and the youngest son of Sir Robert Walpole, was a noted author, wit, antiquarian, publisher, builder and designer; he pioneered the 18th-century Gothic revival in England and formed a remarkable collection of works of art and curiosities, which he displayed at Strawberry Hill. John Chute and the Earl of Lincoln, two of his companions in Venice, also ordered sets of these plates. The views are copied from prints by Antonio Visentini, after paintings by Canaletto, and from etchings by Luca Carlevaris. Prior to their publication, Visentini's prints were probably obtained for this purpose by Joseph Smith, a merchant and banker living in Venice, where he was later a British Consul.

This type of white glass, which is made opaque with an arsenic compound, was probably made in imitation of porcelain.