This comport is part of a dessert service that was specially commissioned by Lord Milton, son of Earl Fitzwilliam. It commemorated his 1862-1863 expedition, with his physician Dr. Walter Cheadle,  from the Red River Settlement in Manitoba to the Pacific Ocean. Minton was the leading English manufacturer of porcelain. Pottery historians Paul Atterbury and Maureen Batkin wrote that the Milton service was “the most remarkable topographical service ever made by Minton.”