The form of this box shows that it was not intended to contain snuff, as snuff-boxes were invariably hinged, but was a souvenir. Mary Cowper, Lady of the Bedchamber to Queen Caroline when she was Princess of Wales, recorded in her diary on 20 February 1716 that 'The Princess told me she had sent for Amber out of Germany for Boxes for her Ladies; but as she loved and esteemed me a hundred Times more than any of the Rest, she would make a Distinction and so pulled out of a Drawer a fine gold Box, and gave it me'. This comment makes clear that there was an unofficial hierarchy in the presentation of boxes from members of the royal family. Boxes were the gift of choice to ambassadors and other envoys, and members of the household, and finely chased gold examples were given to those closest to the donor, or to those of high rank. But boxes were also given to those who had rendered service in some way. In 1738, for example, Frederick, Prince of Wales, presented Richard Nash, the Master of Ceremonies at the Assembly Rooms in Bath, with an enamelled box in token of his attention during the Prince's visit to the city. In return Nash erected an obelisk in Queen's Square, commemorating Frederick's visit.

Although this box is not of the finest quality, it bears a miniature portrait by the leading enamellist Christian Frederick Zincke, suggesting that it was not a negligible gift. The miniature portrait was probably painted in about 1740, quite late in the artist's career, and at a point when his eyesight had begun to deteriorate. It is a slightly larger variant of another miniature by the artist in the Royal Collection (421803) and derives from a mezzotint of George II by John Faber.

Text adapted from The First Georgians; Art and Monarchy 1714 - 1760, London, 2014.