James I is depicted wearing a cloth-of-gold doublet, ermine robe and pleated ruff, with a gold collar around his neck; the magnificent diamond 'feather' jewel is pinned to the rim of his black hat. Joseph's Lee's enamel copy is based on a miniature on vellum of James I in the Royal Collection traditionally given to Isaac Oliver but recently catalogued by Graham Reynolds as English School after Simon van der Passe (420040; Reynolds, 1999, no. 76). The original source for the image was an engraved silver plaque by van der Passe. The copy is faithful in detail, although the colours in Lee's enamel are deeper than the much-damaged and repainted original.

Joseph Lee (1780-1859) was self-taught as an an enamellist at a late age, but made a successful career as an enamel painter, exhibiting intermittently at the RA and the SBA between 1809 and 1853 from addresses in London. He styled himself as 'enamel painter' to Princess Charlotte of Wales and later worked as 'enamel painter' to Augustus, Duke of Sussex. It may have been the gift of a small enamel of the Duke of Sussex to Queen Victoria that first made her familiar with Lee's work. She employed his services for producing enamel copies based on oil paintings between 1844 and 1850. He retired from miniature painting in his final years and died, aged seventy-nine, in Gravesend, Kent, on 26 December 1859.