This carving shows one of the complex trade exchanges centered on Bristol. The River Severn gave Bristol's merchants an important route inland to the Midlands and the north.

Alabaster panels were among the items carried down the Severn and exported from Bristol by local merchants such as Robert Thorne, who was based in Seville, in Spain, in the 1520s. Nottingham alabasters were exported to the Mediterranean countries in one direction, and to Scandinavian countries in the other

Carved in Nottingham from local stone, they illustrated scenes from the Bible - either the life of Christ or the martyrdom of saints. Most were designed to be built into an altarpiece in church. This panel shows the visit of the Three Kings.

The early history of this panel is not known, but with others it was reused in the altarpiece of the Catholic Pro-Cathedral in Clifton, consecrated in 1848.