A head and shoulders copy of the figure of Princess Helena taken from Robert Thorburn's (1818-85) full-length group portrait miniature of 1847 showing the Princess with Queen Victoria and Prince Alfred (406891: Royal Collection). Another payment to Lee for an enamel of Princess Helena was recorded in 1850 (RA VIC/ADDT/ 231/161; Enamels, no. 94), but the miniature is no longer in the Royal Collection.

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. As well as enjoying the patronage of Princess Charlotte of Wales, he also worked as 'enamel painter' to Augustus, Duke of Sussex, uncle to Queen Victoria. 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.