This painted wooden toilet case contains a variety of pots and bottles for scents and creams as well as tools including an earpick for cleaning the ears and a bodkin for threading ribbons or laces. The box would originally have been both brightly-coloured and shiny, contributing another layer of decoration to a fashionable bedroom or dressing room.

The box is decorated and finished in imitation of Japanese lacquer with a range of scenes in red and gold on a blue-green ground. The lustrous finish was probably created using the decorative technique of vernis Martin, named after the family that developed it. Many French craftsmen experimented with paints and varnishes, trying to find a way to replicate the shine, depth of colour and delicate decoration of Japanese lacquer, which was first imported into Europe in the seventeenth century. The most successful were the four Martin brothers who were granted a royal privilege to manufacture imitation lacquer by Louis XV in 1733.