At the height of the Qianlong emperor's collecting activities, he amassed more than a million precious art objects, both from antiquity and by contemporary craftsmen. They filled imperial halls and palaces, while smaller objects were ordered and stored in boxes of many treasures, baibao he. These presentation boxes for the Imperial collections were often art forms in themselves, produced in a variety of material and constructed with compartments and drawers to house individual items. For a variety of such boxes, see the Catalogue to the National Palace Museum, Taiwan, exhibition One Hundred Pieces from the Palace Museum, 1990.

A painted wood box of nearly identical design to the present box, where the drawers are further divided into compartments for storing snuff bottles, is illustrated in The Emperor as a Private Person, pl. 284. Another square lacquer box and cover with similar carved decoration, with the addition of a Qianlong mark, was sold in these Rooms, 30 May 2005, lot 1349.