With its simple yet luxurious mahogany veneer, restrained use of mounts, overall shape and tiered outline, the present lot is closely related to the boxes manufactured in the atelier of David Roentgen. Comparable boxes of various size and shape were a staple in the Roentgen workshop and were made for a number of uses, such as tea caddies, or Teeschatulle, and courier boxes. Between 1755 and 1790, the workshop is known to have produced over 100 such items, many of them equipped with secret drawers lined with silk and intended for tea storage. The lot offered here is also fitted with spring-loaded drawers with hidden secondary compartments. The popularity of such boxes is illustrated by the fact that when a lottery was organized by the workshop in 1768, twelve Teeschatulle were among the prizes: Zwolf Stuck kostbare eingelegte Thee-Schatullen mit einer Schieb Lade, welche von selbst herausspringt, a St. 6 Duc. This also explains why Roentgen’s contemporaries began imitating his works and how small boxes of this type quickly became fashionable not only in the German lands but in France as well.