The ceramic tiles originally decorated the tomb of Mdm Ang Lian Neo who passed away in 1931. Mdm Ang's grave was one of over 3,700 graves that were exhumed between 2013 and 2014 for the construction of a new road through Bukit Brown Cemetery. Many of the exhumed graves were decorated with polychrome tiles but the design of the square tiles on this slab is among the more unusual found. They feature stylised hydrangeas and other floral motifs set against a green diaper ground and are paired with border tiles featuring pastel-pink blooms to form a visually pleasing composition. This single slab of fifteen tiles originally decorated one section of the tomb "arms" (the structure which flanks both sides of a headstone). Located in the central part of Singapore, Bukit Brown Cemetery was officially opened on 1 January 1922 by the British colonial government as a public cemetery for non-Christian Chinese. It came to house an estimated 100,000 graves before it was officially closed to burials in 1973.
