The sumptuous feel of this example alludes to the moody atmosphere of a lamp-lit room, rich and luxurious in quality, owing to the heavy impasto in the rather sonorous palette which he skilfully tempered with the naturalistic colours of the feathers and the shell. When he moved to his home in Temple, Scotland in 1939, Gillies replaced the electric lighting in the house with paraffin lamps, influencing the nature of his still life work. The artist was an ardent collector of still life and found objects which he incorporated into his studio work, among them, pots made by his sister Emma who had died in 1936.