This fish slice would have been part of a silver table service. By the time it was made in 1814 to 1815 almost every flatware service included such a slice. The advantage of silver was that it did not taint the delicate flavour of the fish. The pierced decoration also allowed any liquid to drain away.

The fish slice evolved from the ‘Pudding Trowle’, such as the one supplied to the Earl of Kildare in 1745. The ‘trowle’ normally consisted of a triangular blade which was pierced and sawn to various designs. It was soon used for fish as well as pudding. By the 1770s, when it was suddenly fashionable to eat whitebait, silversmiths supplied a large number of trowels both with fish-shaped outlines and also pierced and chased to represent one. The earliest trowels usually had solid silver handles. Later examples had turned and stained ivory handles.