Rectangular black and gold lacquered games box, with a shallow cover, enclosing smaller boxes for counters and trays for playing cards. On the top, in the centre, an oval panel painted in colours with the arms of Edward, Duke of Kent (1767–1820), framed by a narrow laurel wreath, on a flowered panel with irregular black border set among gilt scrollwork on a pale, gilt ground, enclosed by a rectangle with key-fret border, all within an area of ivy-leaf pattern, bordered in black and having in each corner a black circle painted in gold with the monogram ‘E’ under a coronet, with the motto Aut vincere aut mori (‘Either to conquer or to die’), with a gilt husk border at the cover’s rim; with matching designs round the sides. Inside, an oblong box and four smaller boxes, painted to match the top, with the device of a lion on a coronet in gold on black in the centre, containing oval, mother-of-pearl gaming counters and three porcelain counters. Behind them, stacks of four deep trays decorated with ivy leaves, and six shallow trays, painted, probably in England, with cards of the suit of diamonds.

Text adapted from Chinese and Japanese Works of Art in the Collection of Her Majesty The Queen: Volume III.