The particularly fine engravings on this porringer include elements drawn from sixteenth-century Netherlandish prints after works by Maarten van Heemskerck (1498 – 1574). The base is engraved with the name Anna Michiels van Vaerlaer (1583/4 – 1644), a member of a prominent Mennonite (or Anabaptist) family from Antwerp, and it is possible that this piece was a baptism gift, although it is an opulent example for a member of a church which usually shunned luxury.