While combinations of gold of different colours had been used as an element in the decoration of mixed-media snuffboxes since the 1720s, the exclusive use of coloured golds only began in the mid-1740s. The present snuffbox not only is an example of this development but also highlights two others. First, the introduction of compositions inspired by the paintings of David Teniers the younger (1610–1690), which started to be employed at the turn of the decade. As well as chased gold, these subjects were rendered in other materials, including painted enamel and in shell relief mosaics. The second development was the use of a highly burnished but unadorned ground, which may be dated precisely to the years 1754–1755. Jean François Garand made effective use of such a ground as a foil to the painted enamel decoration made in this year.

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