Messrs. A. Hepplewhite & Co's The Cabinet-Maker and Upholsterer's Guide, 1778, pl. 39, provided patterns for this form of 'vase knife case'. Related cutlery-boxes, of hermed, hollowed-corner and bacchic-vase form, and with Egyptian caryatid enrichments were in Queen Mary's Collection at Marlborough House (H. Clifford-Smith, 'Her Majesty Queen Mary as Connoisseur and Collector', Country Life, 17 April 1937, p. 449, fig. 8). A related pair, likewise inlaid with etruscan-black ribbon-frets but supported on bacchic lion-feet, was offered anonymously, in these Rooms, 7 February 1991, lot 50.