The coat of arms on the lid is that of Field Marshal Henry William Paget, 1st Marquess of Anglesey (1768–1854). That on the base is of Trinity College, Dublin. Paget, the eldest son of Henry Bayly-Paget, 1st Earl of Uxbridge (1744–1812), was a distinguished British commander during the Napoleonic Wars. Shortly after the battle of Waterloo, where cannon shot necessitated the amputation of one of his legs, he was created Marquess of Anglesey. He was Lord Lieutenant of Ireland between 1828 and 1829 and for a second time between 1830 and 1833. This gold box was presented to him during the first lieutenancy when he received an honorary doctorate from the University of Dublin.
This box was retailed by a firm associated with the silver trade in Dublin since the middle of the eighteenth century. Matthew West (1747 1806), apprenticed in 1762, became one of the city’s most renowned silversmiths and was Master of the Company of Goldsmiths in 1783–1784. The firm, by then known as West & Son, closed in 2010.

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