This is a vintage vesta or matchsafe, made of gold plated brass with a turquoise stone thumb piece, & probably dating to around the 1940's.

The vesta has a curved body, with an attached suspension ring to enable hanging from a watch chain or chatelaine, a metal inset striker to the base, and an extended thumb piece on the lid with a turquoise coloured cabachon stone (almost certainly synthetic).

The vesta is gold plated & has '18 CT ROLLED GOLD' impressed on the inside lip.

Condition is very good, there is uniform loss to the plate (although the only way to notice this is to look closely at the tiny area around the hasp & thumb piece, where there are tiny traces of the original finish), and the area around the striker has a little tarnishing due to matches being struck.

The hinge & spring are good & the lid snaps shut.

The vesta measures approx 4.7 cm long and 4.5 cm wide.