Rectangular yellow gold body with canted corners features a hinged lift-top lid, concealing a tobacco compartment with mirror-polished surfaces. Set into the lid is a polychrome enamel depiction: Sophonisba, an aristocrat from the time of the Second Punic War (218–201 BC) and daughter of the Carthaginian leader and general Hasdrubal – who was successively the wife of the Western Numidian king Syphax and the Eastern Numidian king Masinissa – holding a cup into which a slave woman pours poison. The image is enclosed in a triple frame consisting of a chased gold ornament and borders of light blue and white enamel. The bottom and the side panels feature light blue opaque enamel inserts within gold frames that surround a border of white enamel. The lid and the bottom panel are decorated along the perimeter with a border featuring a garland of gold stylized lilies and leaves against a field of black opaque enamel. The corner panels present gold foliage ornament against field of black enamel.

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