Assortment tins have been produced to provide customers with needles of various sound categories. There were often produced in different languages for export. These tins had two, three or four compartments for new needles and one for the used one. There was a sliding lid under the tin to empty them.
My HMV Berliner assortment tins :
Suprisingly, a French version of these tins doesn't seem to exist. It is quite interesting though to notice that the inside of the lid of this tin, originally made for English speaking market, has been covered with a paper in French. 
