The combination of Alaterre's collection mark with the date letter L indicates that this snuffbox was completed between July 16 and November 18, 1774, when Jean-Baptiste Fouache registered his own marks. Fouache was appointed manager for the collection of stamping duties on August 6, 1774, however, in the first months of his tenure, he continued to use Alaterre's marks. Snuffboxes of this shape — narrow, oblong, with canted corners — were fashionable in Paris for a little over a decade, starting from the second half of the 1760s. The combination of a translucent enamel background of fir-green color with oval enamel medallions, which reproduced images from 18th-century paintings, had previously been used by Roucel on a snuffbox dating from 1770–1772.


The medallion of the lid of this snuffbox depicts the composition L’Amour menaçant ("Threatening Cupid"), created after a painting by Carle Van Loo (1705–1765) and reproducing an etching by Christian von Mechel (1737–1817) published in 1764. The medallion of the base features La Cruche cassée ("The Broken Pitcher"), after a painting by Jean-Baptiste Greuze (1725–1805), in accordance with an engraving by Jean Massard (1740–1822) published in 1773. Among the medallions on the four main side faces, there is also an image after a painting by François Boucher (1703–1770), published under various titles: L’Oiseau chéri or L’Oiseau privé.

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