This finely carved ivory casket was made in Delhi, possibly by the workshop of Lala Faqir Chand. It was intended as a display piece and is mounted with a miniature painting of the Qutb Minar, a historically and aesthetically significant Delhi landmark. Such paintings are a legacy of the traditional skill of Indian court artists at working in miniature. With the decline of Mughal patronage in the eighteenth century, miniature painters formerly working for the court emigrated to new centres of culture or began to produce works specifically for the growing number of Europeans in India. In Delhi sets of miniatures on ivory were painted which depicted subjects of interest to westerners, typically Indian monuments and portraits of Mughal emperors. These could be acquired separately, or mounted into boxes or jewellery.