William Beckford (1760-1844) was one of the greatest collectors of the late 18th/early 19th Century who amassed a prodigious collection of paintings, books and objets d'art for his romantic Gothic mansion, Fonthill Abbey, Wiltshire, designed for him by James Wyatt (d. 1812). In 1822 he had to sell Fonthill, whose great tower collapsed in 1825.

One of the caskets in the Fonthill Abbey sale was described as a 'boule and tortoiseshell box, lined with green silk velvet and gold lace', which could refer to this lot, although there are no signs of a previous lining.

A casket from the same workshop, attributed to the ébéniste Pierre Gole, was exhibited in 1994 at the Biennale des Antiquaries, Paris. The inventory taken in 1684, after Gole's death, reveals that the ébéniste made only very few pieces decorated with tortoiseshell.

The inlay in pewter and brass on tortoiseshell is, however, also characteristic of the oeuvre of André-Charles Boulle, although the design of the marquetry on this casket is not typical of his work. The presence of heads and busts in profile are similar in style to those on a red tortoiseshell casket, sold by Lord Kinnaird and members of the Kinnaird family, Rossie Priory in these Rooms, 22 June 1989, lot 92, as well as a commode in the Toledo Museum (1965.167).