The firm of Risler & Carré was established in Paris on the rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré in 1897 by André Risler and Georges Albert Carré, selling silverware and jewellery; only three years later the firm was awarded a gold medal at the Paris Exposition Universelle of 1900. In an article published in Le Gaulois on 24 December 1908, the fashionable wares they offered were described: An elegant gathering at the famous jewellers and goldsmiths Risler and Carré. They have created, yet again, very artistic novelties that delighted their rich and beautiful clients. For the ladies: another very pretty series of hat pins decorated with charming enamels and highly original baroque pearls, bonbonnières, small boxes for hair pins, etc. Following the untimely death of André Risler in 1912 his widow took over the company under the name Veuve A. Risler & Carré.

The miniature on the lid is based on le pasteur complaisant, one of a pair of overdoors painted by François Boucher (1703–1770) in 1738 for the Hôtel de Soubise, Paris. It is interesting to note that the miniaturist follows the composition of the original painting rather than the more readily accessible engraving of it that was published by André Laurent in 1742, which rendered the composition in reverse and placed an infant between the protagonists.

The side of the box is decorated with four enamel plaques painted with compositions in the manner of Carle van Loo (1705–1765), with children representing the Four Seasons. A push piece ingeniously enables the enamelled panels to be released, allowing the detached unit to be worn as a bracelet – an example of the artistic novelties highlighted by the correspondent in Le Gaulois.

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