Many skilled craftsmen were among the thousands of Huguenots (French Protestants) to flee persecution in France after 1685, when Louis XIV revoked the Edict of Nantes (which had granted Protestants some religious and political freedom). The cup displayed here was made by David Willaume, one of the most prolific Huguenot silversmiths. It is a good example of the French style that became predominant in England in the early eighteenth century.

Willaume was likely working in London by 1686. He used the fleur-de-lis, a symbol associated with the French monarchy, as part of his mark. The coat of arms is possibly that of a branch of the Campbell family.