The watercolour probably dates from the 1860s, before De Morgan had developed his interest in the lustre pottery with which he is chiefly associated. At this period he was deeply involved with stained glass, working for William Morris and with the stained-glass maker James Lyon Tennant, the watercolour may also be compared with the panels he painted on a cabinet designed c. 1865 by Philip Webb, now in the William Morris Gallery, Walthamstow (repr. cat., 1958, pl. 1)