Boulton & Fothergill created a number of different products at the Soho Manufactory but they were best known for their ormolu mounts. Boulton received patronage from many members of the gentry and nobility as well as from the Queen and the Royal family.Mrs Montague, a leader of fashion in the eighteenth century, lent Boulton her perfume burners or cassolettes from which he designed this example. After a time she urged for their return by explaining 'my friends reproach me that I do not regale their noses with fine odours after entertaining their palates with soup and ragouts. The cassolettes used to make their entry with dessert and chase away the smell of dinner'.