This card case belonged to Marie Taglioni (1804-1884), a celebrated Italian dancer of the romantic ballet, who performed at Her Majesty's Theatre in London and Théâtre de l'Académie Royale de Musique in Paris in the late 1830s. She became famous for dancing en pointe, not as an acrobatic stunt, but as an aesthetic decision in choreography.
The case was designed and produced by the manufacturer Chamberlain Worcester in the early 1800s. Although the case is primarily made of leather embossed with gold powder in a fashionable foliage design, the central panel is made with enamelled porcelain, decorated with flowers. This glamorous case held Taglioni's business cards (S.853:2&3-2001).