On 31 December, 1666, Samuel Pepys used his diary entry to reflect on the events of the year that was passing. It had been, he wrote, “a year of publick wonder and mischief to this nation, and, therefore, generally wished by all people to have an end”.

Not everything was gloomy, however – he had, he noted, “come to abounde in good plate”, meaning that instead of using more humble pewter, “all entertainments” in the Pepys household could now be served entirely on silver plates.

More than 350 years later, a rare example of one of Pepys’ silver plates has been discovered, one of just three plates known to survive from his own collection and the only one on display in the UK.

Despite being marked with his own coat of arms, the trencher plate has only been recently been identified as belonging to Pepys, according to the Museum of London, where it is now on display in its War, Plague and Fire gallery.

It was made in the workshop of Mary King in Foster Lane in 1681, and displays visible knife and fork scratch marks, suggesting it was well used by the diarist and naval administrator.

Pepys began his diary in 1660, at the age of 26, and wrote in it for almost a decade, during which he described some of the most momentous events in London’s history, including the coronation of King Charles II, the great plague of 1665 and the Great Fire of London the following year. He went on to become an MP in Norfolk in 1673 and for Harwich in 1679, and died in 1703, at the age of 70.

Hazel Forsyth, senior curator of medieval and post-medieval at the Museum of London, said: “This is a very important object as it is exceptionally rare to be able to identify the maker and the owner of a plate from this period.

“The fact that it belonged to Samuel Pepys, one of the most celebrated figures in literary and English history, makes it even more special.”