Circular tortoiseshell snuff box, with gold mounts and reeded thumbpiece. The hinged lid with coloured gold piqué Greek key pattern border and garlanded urn. Interior contains glazed ivory miniature: lady, bust-length, turned to the left, her head turned to the right, wearing a lilac-coloured dress with black lace shawl, pearl ear-drop, gold necklace. Grey eyes, powdered hair dressed with jewels, pink complexion. Plain grey background.

This tortoiseshell snuffbox containing a miniature of a lady set inside the lid was given to the Royal Collection in 1893,with the miniature identifed as the work of Samuel Collins. Samuel Collins died in Dublin in 1768, and the miniature, which is signed and dated 1773, cannot therefore be by him. It is in fact the work of Samuel Cotes (1734-1818), who exhibited two portraits of unnamed ladies at the Royal Academy in 1773, one subsequently identified as ‘Miss Linley’. Elizabeth Linley, who later became the wife of the playwright Richard Sheridan, would have been 19 years old at this date. This portrait seems to be of an older woman, as yet unidentified.

Samuel Cotes was the younger son of an apothecary based in Cork Street, London. Samuel also trained as an apothecary but was taught art by his brother, the portrait painter Francis Cotes. He exhibited at the Society of Arts from 1760 to 1768 and at the Royal Academy from 1769 to 1789. He was married twice and his second wife, Sarah Shepherd, was an amateur painter.

Signed and dated on the right: SC / 1773 .