This altar dossal was intended to be displayed above the back of an altar, in the setting of a Church of England chapel. It depicts the Last Supper, the gathering of Christ and his 12 disciples described in the New Testament. The embroidery dates from the period when William Laud was Archbishop of Canterbury. Laud laid great emphasis on the restoration of beauty and dignity to church decoration and worship. In the 1630s many entries in churchwardens’ accounts refer to the refurbishment of altars and pulpits and the provision of rich textiles for church furnishings.
The embroidery is likely to have been commissioned by Henry 5th Baron Sandys of the Vyne, in Hampshire, and is associated with an altar frontal also in the Museum's collection, T.108-1963, with the Sandys arms and dated 1633. The exceptional quality and technique of the embroidery suggest that it was worked by Edmund Harrison, the King’s Embroiderer, and can be compared with the smaller picture of the Nativity in the V&A’s collection T.147-1930 signed by him. The print source for the dossal has been identified as an engraving of The Last Supper circa 1590, by Hieronymous Wierix (c.1553-1619) after Otto van Veen (1556-1629).