This still life was one of the first paintings acquired by The Met, part of the Founding Purchase of 1871. It combines some of the most frequent props of Dutch still life—a lemon peel, the type of glass known as a roemer, and oysters, which were believed at the time to have aphrodisiac properties. The diminutive scale indicates it was destined for a collector’s cabinet, meant to be pored over by a single viewer.