On 21 December 1895 a number of these trinket boxes were presented to ladies in the audience of a so-called 'souvenir night' of the farce Charley's Aunt at London's Globe Theatre. Ticket prices were raised on nights like this to facilitate the manufacture of commemorative souvenirs. This box was commissioned to mark the farce's third anniversary on the London stage. Men were presented with similarly-decorated vesta cases. Souvenir nights were only promoted for particularly successful productions.

Charley’s Aunt, one of the most successful productions of the 19th century, ensured fame and financial security for its author, Brandon Thomas (1848-1914), and W.S. Penley (1851-1912) who staged the original production that opened on 29 February 1892 in Bury St. Edmunds. Penley also originated the role of Lord Fancourt Babberley, who is persuaded by his friend Charley Wykeham to impersonate Charley's rich aunt from Brazil, Donna Lucia d'Alvadorez. The show’s London run began at the Royalty Theatre on 21 December 1892, and transferred to the Globe Theatre on 30 January 1893 where it ran for 1,466 performances, a record at the time. The play closed on 19 December 1896 but has been continually revived around the world and has inspired both film and musical adaptation.

Penley, whose image as Charley's aunt is die-stamped on the lid, was a trained singer and comedian whose early career saw him play the Foreman in the first revival of Gilbert and Sullivan's Trial By Jury at the Royalty Theatre in 1877, and Sir Joseph Porter in Richard D’Oyly Carte Carte’s touring production of HMS Pinafore in 1878. In 1884 Penley made a hit on the London stage as the innocent young clergyman Reverend Robert Spalding in Charles Hawtrey's play The Private Secretary at the Globe Theatre, a role originally created by the hugely successful actor-manager Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree. Spalding was the part with which Penley’s name was associated for years until eclipsed by his success in Charley's Aunt.

Walker & Hall, who made the trinket box and its companion vesta case, were important 19th-century manufacturing and retailing silversmiths who supplied national and international markets with inexpensive electroplated goods, including cutlery, tea ware, candlesticks and trophies. George Walker originally established his company in Sheffield in 1845 as Walker & Co., after securing the royalty for electroplating. Henry Hall joined the business in 1853, creating Walker & Hall, with a factory in Howard Street, Sheffield, and showrooms in London at 45 Holborn Viaduct. Branches were later opened in Liverpool, Manchester, Leeds, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Newcastle, Cardiff, Belfast, Hull, Bristol, Melbourne, Adelaide, Cape Town, Wellington and Auckland.