Gold and agate. On the cover, a Wedgwood blue and white jasper portrait medallion of Catherine II of Russia. Probably English, c. 1780. The Trustees of the Lady Lever Art Gallery, Port Sunlight. This box may perhaps be an example of the work of the Birmingham firm of Boulton and Fothergill. Boulton is known to have set Wedgwood’s cameos in faceted steel jewellery, and it is not unlikely that he would have produced snuffboxes commemorative of so illustrious an occasion as the visit of Catherine the Great to the Soho factory in 1776. It may also be noted that commercial relations among the three were close: Boulton and Fothergill engaged an agent who represented them, and also Wedgwood, at the Russian court
