Case lined externally in leather with gilt iron decoration of fleurs-de-lys, and internally with red velvet. Metal clasps. It has the appearance of a deep oval tazza with a balustroid stem and foot. Internally, it is lined with red velvet in good condition, and has some small pads of crimson silk to preserve the delicate chased masks with rings in their mouths, situated at the ends of the vessel. The decoration, on good quality morocco leather, consists of a “semis” or “seedbed” of fleurs-de-lys in very closely spaced lines forming a grid, in the style of certain bookbinding designs of the period of Charles IX of France (1550-1574).