Made for displaying and serving large quantities of caviar, this silver pail is formed by three mermen kneeling on a base of rocks and supporting a fanciful bell-shaped conch. The design, whose exuberant asymmetry reflects the eighteenth-century Rococo style, is based on a 1746 engraving by Jacques-François Saly that appeared in a source book of miscellaneous sixteenth- to eighteenth-century prints compiled by the firm of Storr and Mortimer. The partnership of Mortimer and Hunt began in 1819 as Paul Storr and Company, probably the most widely recognized name in the history of nineteenth-century English silver. Successors to the firm assume several different titles over the next few decades.

By the mid-nineteenth century, prominent silver firms such as Mortimer and Hunt received commissions not only in England but also from wealthy Europeans. For this caviar pail, the royal coat of arms of the Russian Prince Worontsov Dashkov was cast and chased into a base of rocks and sealife. The bell-shaped conch, which seems to have been raised from the ocean by the mermen, would have offered tremendous quantities of glistening caviar, an exotic and costly treat even in Russia, where it was cultivated. An engraved number seven under the base indicates that the pail was not intended to be used alone, but was part of a multipiece service. Filled to the brim with caviar, it would have helped set the stage for a spectacular dining-room display.