From a line of respected Parisien jewellers, Eugene Fontenay established his own business in Paris in 1847, moving address to place du Marché-Saint-Honoré in 1858 and quickly gaining a reputation as a leading revivalist designer and craftsman. Dating to the early twentieth century and the new style of Belle Époque design, the fitted case, stamped Fontenay Smets Succ[esseu]r refers to the handing over of the business by Fontenay in 1882 to his workshop supervisor, Henri Smets, while Fontenay himself concentrated on writing his Bijoux Anciens et Modernes.