This expertly-crafted box and cover very clearly illustrate the skill of the craftsmen who were producing fine objects within the Mughal empire from the beginning of the 17th century and throughout the 18th century, when this was probably made. The gently domed cover has been hollowed out, leaving a shallow ridge between the lobes and the rim has been contoured to leave a raised outer rim to enable to cover to be seated securely onto the box. The upper surface has an inlaid gold wire border running just in from the edge within which is a flower and leaf design formed from 36 rubies / pink sapphires, 25 emeralds and 7 diamonds in reflective closed-back mounts in gold settings. The mounts for the rubies and emeralds had once been coloured but many have since deteriorated and faded. Each component has been fashioned from a single piece of nephrite jade.
The box was previously owned by the notable collector of Mughal jade and rock crystal objects, Colonel Charles Seton Guthrie and was bought by the Indian Museum in Leadenhall Street, London, in 1868 for £60. It was transferred to the South Kensington Museum (later renamed the Victoria & Albert Museum) in 1879.

Charles Seton Guthrie was an important collector of eastern coins and Mughal jade and rock crystal objects. He was the second son of Scottish parents, both of whom were from noble and landed families, and his father worked for the East India Company in Calcutta.
Guthrie most probably developed his interest in jade and rock crystal when he studied geology as a 17 year old cadet in 1825 in Addiscombe, and he joined the Bengal Engineers in 1828. Through his family’s established connection with the Inglis and Lister families, he became acquainted with Harry Inglis and his Anglo-Indian wife Sophia (nee Lister). He may well have received gifts of objects that Harry had acquired as proceeds from his Indian military campaigns. Harry was the son and heir of George Inglis who owned Inglis & Co., a large Indian trading company. During his time in India, Guthrie enhanced his collections with acquisitions financed by his army pay and also income from properties in his late mother’s estate. He subsequently retired at the honorary rank of Colonel in 1857, although he returned to England in 1855, at the same time as Harry and Sophia, due to having 2 years of accumulated leave. Following Harry’s death in 1860, his embalmed body was returned to India, accompanied by Sophia and Charles, where it was interred in an above-ground tomb. Sophia inherited Harry’s vast estate, which almost certainly contained many fine jewels and Mughal objects. Sophia began living together with Charles in Calcutta, bearing him a son in 1862. Following a financially significant arrangement being agreed by Sophia with Charles, the two eventually married in 1863 with the family returning to England a short time thereafter. Sophia died in 1866, with Charles being named as an executor with instruction to liquidate her un-itemised English estate which included “jewels, trinkets and shawls”. Soon thereafter, in 1868, Guthrie sold part of his collection of jade and rock crystal objects to The India Museum and his large coin collection to a museum in Germany. Colonel Charles Seton Guthrie died in 1874 and the remainder of his collections was sold at auction, in accordance with the terms of his will, with many objects finding their way into other important collections and then subsequently to this museum.