MacBryde rarely painted classic still-life objects such as apples or pears, and instead opted for more obscure (particularly in the ration-book, post-war era) fruit and vegetables which either had phallic associations or were full of seeds. Cucumbers, cantaloupe melons and figs were his favourites. The white object in the centre left recurs in a later painting, but its identity is not exactly clear: it may be part of a bone or scull of a sheep. The tipped-up perspective and geometric structure are much indebted to Cubism.