Delftware is a variety of earthenware with tin oxide added to its lead glaze formula to give an opaque white effect that was often used to imitate, or at least suggest, the appearance of Chinese porcelain. First produced in England in the late 1500s, delftware grew in popularity in the 1600s as potteries flourished in London, Bristol, and elsewhere in the British Isles. Metallic oxides provided a range of colors for decoration: cobalt for blue, manganese for purple, iron for red, copper for green, and antimony for yellow. Delftware was relatively soft and chipped easily. By the mid-1700s, more durable soft-paste porcelains and salt-glazed stonewares grew in popularity; by the early 1800s, delftware production in England had declined dramatically.

Emerging near the end of the 1600s, the monteith permitted the bowls of wine glasses to be chilled or rinsed in cold water while their feet were retained in the decorative notches along the rim. The name is derived from a “fantastical Scot called ‘Monsieur Monteigh’” noted in the writings of Anthony Wood, a 17th-century English diarist. Though the gentleman noted by Wood remains obscure, it was the shaped outline of the hem of his cloak that gave the decorative bowl its name.