This circular dish, likely dating to the late nineteenth century, was made in the manner of talented French potter Bernard Palissy, who began practicing his trade in the sixteenth-century. An enthusiastic natural scientist, Palissy used local fish, plants and reptiles—he made casts of actual specimens for use in his modeling—fashioned in a range of colored glazes, to develop what he called "pastoral pottery." Although he is recorded as having produced his rustic ware in abundance, the only documented work by his hand was the grotto (now destroyed) in the garden of the Tuileries.

This bit was excavated by avocational archaeologists Reginald P. Bolton and William Calver circa 1910 at the site of Fort George, a Revolutionary War fort and encampment located in Washington Heights, Manhattan. The camp was located at what is now Audobon Avenue, between 190th and 194th Streets, and was occupied by British and Hessian troops from 1776 until the end of the war in 1783. The bit was probably used on a horse belonging to an officer or a soldier in a dragoon regiment.

These buttons were excavated by the Field Exploration Committee at Revolutionary War encampments in New York City.