Henry Bone was the son of a cabinet-make from Truro, Cornwall. Bone came to London c. 1779 and began to work as a miniature painter, at first painting in watercolour on ivory but working exclusively in enamel from c. 1803 onwards. After his appointment as Enamel Painter to George, Prince of Wales (later George IV) in 1801 he began to paint a series of large-scale enamel copies of mythological and religious paintings by Reynolds and the Old Masters which were elaborately framed and hung in the Prince of Wales's Private Bedroom at Carlton House. They survive as the most ambitious works of their type ever produced using the enamel technique.

The source for this enamel is a portrait in oils by Andrew Morton (1802 – 45), exhibited RA 1830 (no. 182) showing William IV in admiral of the fleet's uniform with the ribbon and star of the Order of the Garter and the Sovereign's badge and star of the Order of the Bath.

Signed, dated and inscribed on the counter-enamel in red paint: His Majesty / William 4th / London Novr / 1830. / Painted by Henry / Bone R.A. Enamel / painter to His / Majesty &c. &c. / after the Original / by Morton.