Each of these small plates, made for serving dried fruit or sweets at the end of a meal, is painted with decorative plant motifs and quotations from the Bible. 
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In Elizabethan times sweets were very expensive, high status foods, served only to the most important people. The sticky sweets were served on the unpainted side of the roundel. Each diner would have a different message hidden underneath, a bit like crackers or fortune cookies today.

Set of 12 roundels, small plates for serving dried fruits, sycamore, 1580-1600