It was last seen at the National Exhibition of Works of Art at Leeds General Infirmary in 1868, when it was owned by the MP John Heywood Hawkins.

The hanging bowl is named after the River Witham in Lincolnshire, where it was discovered at Washingborough in 1816, along with several other articles - including a wooden canoe - in the course of drainage works.

Foliate and vine-scroll filigree work decorates the top and bottom surfaces of the flat central indentation.

Equally spaced around the rim are four animal heads as the tops of loop escutcheons that extend down the sides of the bowl, held on with rivets and decorated with millefiori panels, terminating with small projecting human heads below the bowl.

[1] The filigree decoration resembles the Kirkoswald brooch and the blue glass recalls the Ardagh Chalice.