[1] The sculpture was proposed by Burton's civic society,[2] who thought that the completion of the Coopers Square shopping centre in the town should be marked by a large public artwork.

[3] Butler visited a cooperage at Bass-Charrington to study the work of two contemporary coopers, and took photographs from which he made a preliminary model.

[5][4] The cooper is shown in the act of hammering down a temporary shaping truss to hold the wooden staves in place before the permanent iron hoops are fitted.

The cooper is depicted in a realistic style and Noszlopy and Waterhouse (2005) describe the careful attention to detail with which the man's clothing and veins on his left hand are rendered.

The other plaque notes that two time capsules are buried beneath the statue, each containing five items suggested by local children as symbolic of Burton in the 1990s.

[7] The Burton Civic Society objected to the move, stating that people would be unable to view the statue outside of the centre's open hours.