In the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries vases were supplied in pairs or in chimney-piece garnitures of three, five or seven, which have rarely survived intact. These vases illustrate the jasper-like effect which could be produced by applying a coloured slip ground to fine white stoneware. The reliefs are of popular subjects which also occur on jasper and fine stonewares by other potters, such as John Turner and his sons, John and William. Until the recent discovery of another marked vase, these were the only pieces which could be firmly ascribed to Richard Woolley (1765–1825) during his occupation of the Lane End Manufactory, Longton between 1810 and 1812.

From about 1793 to 1807, Woolley had been in partnership with James Chetham at Commerce Street, Longton, and on Chetham's death he continued in partnership with his widow, Ann, until 1809. According to Simeon Shaw in The History of the Staffordshire Potteries, 1829, Chetham and Woolley had introduced a very fine, unglazed white body in 1795 which became known as ‘Pearl’, and like jasper was used ‘for the finest description of ornaments’. It seems likely that Woolley would have continued to make ‘Pearl’ after he set up his own business, and if so, the Fitzwilliam Museum's vases are probably examples of that body.