The following description was prepared by William Gross:

Tefilin are a set of small black leather boxes containing scrolls of parchment with verses from the Torah. They are worn by observant male Jews during weekday morning prayers. These Holy objects need storage protection when not in use.

The custom of using silver boxes in which to store the Tefilin when not in use was originally unique to Galicia. After 1850, when there was major emigration of Jews from that area, a few examples come from other places, particularly Vienna. There are several dozen examples of this object in collections around the world, many of them marked with the silver marks of Lviv, Ukraine. This singleton example, lacking the second of the pair, is highly unusual in depicting the 4 animals of Pirkei Avot in a 3-dimensional manner. There is no other recorded example of this type. Additionally, it was most likely made by a Jewish silversmith. The limited number of examples extent indicate that relatively few persons could afford the luxury of using silver for Tefilin boxes, which, when used at all, were usually of cardboard or leather.