The Portuguese brought matchlock technology to Taiwan (then Formosa) in the 16th century. Formosa was part of the Qing Dynasty until 1895 and the design of their guns often echoed those of the Chinese who used matchlocks until the 1860s.

The matchlock gun required several accessories that could include powder and priming flasks, spare matches, tinder boxes, wadding and bullets. The  cartouche was invented in the 16th century as a way of speeding up and simplifying the firing process. A cartouche was a tube of bamboo, cane or even rolled paper or cardboard that contained a bullet and pre-measured charge of gunpowder powder for a single shot. The owner of this 19th-century case, whch holds ten cartouches, would have also carried a powder flask and once his cartouches were empty he would refill them with powder from this flask and ammunition from the basketwork bullet holder.