After a portrait type dating from c.1712 by Alexis Simon Belle (1674 – 1734), engraved by François Chéreau the Elder (1680 – 1729). The primary version is at Versailles (MV 4376); a studio version (no. 348) and a miniature version in oil on copper (no. 273) are in the NPG, London. Simpson may have worked from the miniature of this type by an anonymous artist also purchased by Queen Victoria in 1848 (420137).

John Simpson (1811-after 1871) was trained as a porcelain painter at the Derby porcelain factory before moving to London in 1845. He soon established a practice as a miniature painter specialising in works on enamel, and fulfilled the first of many commissions for Queen Victoria in that year. He is last recorded describing himself at the end of his career as a 'photographic artist' (1871 census return); the date of his death is not known.

Signed, dated and inscribed on the counter-enamel in black paint: Prince James / Francis Ewd / called / The Old Pretender / by J. Simpson / 1848.