Enamel decoration on snuffboxes progressed from small highlights to larger areas painted en plein, or directly onto the plain gold ground. Craftsmen created small vignettes within gold chased borders, depicting a new range of fashionable scenes, but regrettably few are signed by the artist. The subjects were often floral compositions, pastoral scenes in the manner of the French artist François Boucher (1703-70), or peasant scenes in the manner of David Teniers the Younger (1610-90).

It has been suggested that the dogs and the cat enamelled on the lid are those of Madame de Pompadour, the mistress of Louis XV of France. Mimi and Ines were portrayed in engravings of 1755 and 1758 by Etienne Fessard after paintings by Christophe Huet. However, there is no reason to suppose that the box itself belonged to Madame de Pompadour as it was made in 1764, the year of her death, and the engravings were in circulation from the mid 1750s. An alternative reading is that the dogs actually represent fidelity and companionship. The box is also set with enamel roundels skillfully imitating the hardstone lapis lazuli.

François-Nicolas Génard was apprenticed to Louis Mailly in 1737 at the age of 14 but at Mailly's death, less than two years later, he moved to Simon Desormeaux. Génard became a master goldsmith in 1754 and was sponsored by Noel Hardivilliers.

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.