This snuff box, with its undulating sides and distinctive combinations of colour and painted decoration, is typical of the work produced in Geneva for the Ottoman market. Certain features, however, distinguish it from much of the production. While many snuff boxes of this type were light in weight, this box is notable heavy. Further, unusually, the inside rims are enamelled. Finally, the anonymous maker of this box has sought to increase its prestige by adding spurious English marks, including those of the London goldsmiths John Ray & James Montague. The incorporation of the Sultan's portrait in the lid draws this snuff box into the corpus of boîtes portrait, which, since the 18th century, European rulers had presented to select recipients. This is yet another example of Mahmud II's adoption of European custom.