This white marble bust of the German Emperor Frederick III of Prussia was a commission from Queen Victoria, who in July 1897 invited William White to make a marble reproduction of a plaster bust of Frederick III by the German sculptor Reinhold Begas which existed at Buckingham Palace.

Frederick III is shown wearing full military dress and the chain of the Order of the Black Eagle of the Kingdom of Prussia, and the British Order of the Garter. The bust stands on a rectangular curved tapered streaked grey pedestal, stepped at base.

Queen Victoria requested the engraved inscription on the pedestal to read ‘Frederic III /King of Prussia, German Emperor /1888 /Copy after R. Begas / by/ W. White/ 1897.’

A letter to the sculptor from Queen Victoria’s German Secretary Moritz Muther dated 10th December 1897 shows that the bust ‘has been given entire satisfaction […], the Queen and Princess Beatrice […] think it quite beautiful […] and it has been placed in the Long Corridor [at Windsor Castle].’

A payment of £85.10 for the bust is recorded in Queen Victoria’s 1897 Privy Purse Accounts.