Jean Petitot was the leading enamellist of the seventeenth-century. His career encompassed highly successful spells at both the English and French courts. The extensive demand for his work later in his career appears to have resulted in some workshop productions, possibly including the present example, and he is known to have collaborated with his brother-in-law, Jacques Bordier, and his son, Jean Petitot II. This enamel is painted in a weak imitation of Jean Petitot's style, and is a slightly larger version of a signed enamel by Petitot of Mary Stuart, Princess of Orange in the Dutch Royal Collection. The original enamel may have been based on a portrait of Mary Stuart by Gerrit van Honthorst (variant sold Christie's 4 October 1946, lot 126). Mary, daughter of Charles I of England, married, in 1641, William, Prince of Orange. Her son, Prince William of Orange married Princess Mary, daughter of James II of England, and became William III, King of England.