Box for toilet articles

This tortoise shell perfume bottle container is fashioned with a piqué technique. The shell was boiled and softened, then shaped and decorated with sheets of gold that locked in place as the shell hardened. This technique was introduced in 16th-century Naples, but soon spread to northern Europe and remained fashionable throughout the 19th century. The shell typically derived from hawksbill sea turtles found in tropical coral reefs. Today the species is threatened.