Opinion about this case for papers has changed more than once since it was acquired by the Museum over a hundred years ago. John Jones, who bought the case in the 19th century and bequeathed it to the Museum in 1882 would have acquired it as a piece dating from the reign of the French king Louis XV (reigned 1715-74). He had a particular love for French decorative arts of the 18th century and his collection was to become one of the most significant bequests ever made to the Museum. By the 1960s, it was suggested that the case had been made up out of an 18th-century table top, but we now believe that it was made in its entirety only a few years before Jones acquired it. By the 1830s, the trade in French antiques in London was so important that many makers were actively creating objects in their own interpretation of the Louis XV style.