The miniature set on the cover features Melpomene the muse of tragedy, holding a crown and sceptres, and crowning French actress Mademoiselle Clairon, seated, leaning on books. The scene was engraved by Hubert François Gravelot and published circa 1765 by Noël Le Mire and is therefore very much contemporary to the snuff-box dated 1767/1768.
Mademoiselle Clairon, also known as La Clairon was a French actress born Claire Josèphe Hippolyte Leris (1723-1803), who made her debut in Paris in 1743 at the Comédie-Française in the title-role of Phèdre and went on to become one of the queen of the stage. She is known for developing a new style of acting in which the actor use inspiration from their own emotions and experiences in order to create a greater lasting impact on the audience, as well as a more rational mode of costuming. In 1766 she retired but continued training pupils, for the stage, and published in 1799 a book of memoirs, filled with anecdotes and interesting details concerning her art.

Charles Le Bastier (fl. 1754-1783) was one of the most important goldsmiths during the reign of Louis XV and Louis XVI, active at the most creative period for gold boxes. A prolific maker, Le Bastier left an extensive body of work which makes it possible to estimate his personal style described by Clare le Corbeiller in European and American Snuff Boxes 1730-1830, London, 1966, p. 29 as 'characterised by classical restraint, a spare use of ornament, and the frequent use of subtle - sometimes contrasting - enamel colours'. The Louvre Museum holds an example dated 1767/1768 with similar enamelled decoration and contrasting pale green and royal blue enamel, see S. Grandjean, Les tabatières du musée du Louvre, Paris, 1981, p. 122, no. 139 gifted by Baronne Salomon de Rothschild, Adèle de Rothschild.