Christopher Dresser is rightfully regarded as one of the most creative, versatile, and prolific designers of the second half of the nineteenth century. He provided designs for a variety of media to numerous manufactories throughout Britain and helped to establish the Linthorpe Art Pottery, of which he was artistic director between 1879 and 1882. Dresser's work for Linthorpe embodies his design creed in its purest, most basic form: good design of utilitarian objects produced in multiples at affordable prices.

Dresser's Linthorpe pottery is characterized by the use of highly sculptural forms decorated with rich glazes. The subtle influence of Japanese art and ceramics in particular underlies most of his Linthorpe designs. In this bowl, Dresser has made three-dimensional the wave motif so common in Japanese art and has suggested, simultaneously, the form of the crescent moon. Dresser's deep interest in Japanese art, which began in the early 1860s, influenced his entire aesthetic, and he was instrumental in making Japanese art and design better known both in Britain and in the United States.