As is confirmed by the maker's inscription, this stationery box was made in Nagina, a town in the Bijnor District of the United Provinces celebrated for its high quality cabinetwork in ebony and ebonized wood. The artists who made such pieces were Muslim and the carved decoration of their wares consisted principally of floral and geometric motifs, sometimes with finely carved inscriptions and, as on this piece, verses of poetry in Persian. The high quality of such ariticles confounded contemporary critics, who were astonished that superior objects of this type were being made at such a distance from both raw materials and patronage.