The liquid platinum process which produces silver lustre was first used in England in 1805 by John Hancock, employed in Henry Daniel's enamelling workshop at the Spode factory in Stoke. The glazed ware was coated with a preparation composed of platinum dissolved in aqua regia (nitric and hydrochloric acids) suspended in a resinous medium, such as spirits of tar. During firing the resin burned away, leaving a thin film of untarnishable platinum on the surface. At first, lustre was steel-coloured and it was not until 1812–14 that a true silver was achieved by applying a second coating of platinum in the form of a powder mixed with water. Resist patterns, like the one on this dish, were produced by painting the design or background with gum or size which prevented the platinum from adhering to those areas.

It is not known when lustreware was introduced at Leeds, but it was probably a little before its first mention in the Leeds Pottery Drawing Book for ‘Enamell'd Tea Ware’ in 1819. Silver-lustred wares were also made in the Potteries, and in the north-east at Sunderland and Newcastle-upon-Tyne, as were copper, pink and purple lustres derived from gold.

The popularity of lustre stemmed partly from the desire of humble people to have tableware which looked like silver or other metals, and partly from the taste for opulent interiors and furnishing during the Regency period.