This box was probably a portable container for snuff. Snuff was made of fermented tobacco mixed with various perfumed oils, herbs or spices and compressed into a block, which was then grated to make a fine powder ready for inhalation. Tobacco was originally discovered by Europeans through their encounters with the indigenous peoples of the Americas who used it in barter and trade. It came into general use in Western Europe around 1570 where it was highly prized for its medicinal and narcotic properties. By the 1630s it was used by all classes, despite its cost.

Germany was one of the first European countries to establish methods of processing tobacco, around 1643. Tobacco could be smoked through cheap, disposable pipes but the wealthy preferred to take it as snuff and snuff boxes became status objects. The lid of this snuff box presents a contemporary image of affluence and style. A view of a large moated building and city dwellings provides a background for three fashionably-dressed European figures who stand beside an imposing statue in the foreground. The female figure is protected from the sun by a parasol held by a turbaned black figure. Like tobacco, African servants offered exotic associations and were a marker of luxury within the European home.