The high quality of the goldsmith’s work on this box and the lavish use of precious stones indicates that it is part of the group of boxes associated with Frederick II the Great of Prussia.

Frederick was a cultivated admirer of the arts. He maintained a lengthy, although sometimes heated correspondence with the French philosopher Voltaire and was a gifted musician, composer and linguist. He had a passion for gold boxes, and took a keen interest in their design. He even designed some snuffboxes himself and produced designs in collaboration with Jean-Guillaume Krüger (1728-1791), for which twenty blueprints survive. He carried a box at all times, one is even said to have saved his life by deflecting a bullet during the battle of Kunersdorf in 1759.

The body of the box and its lid are made of a single specimen each. Unlike some other examples (see LOAN Gilbert.423– 2008), the jewelled ornament encrusted on the lid of the box has been applied to the edges only so as not to obscure the natural beauty of the stone agate specimen.

Sir Arthur Gilbert and his wife Rosalinde formed one of the world's great decorative art collections, including silver, mosaics, enamelled portrait miniatures and gold boxes. Arthur Gilbert donated his extraordinary collection to Britain in 1996.