Henry Pierce Bone was the eldest son of the leading enamellist Henry Bone and was taught enamel painting by his father. The pair worked in collaboration until Henry Bone's death in 1834, when Henry Pierce Bone took his father's place as the most prolific and successful enamellist of the time, utilising his father's methods and in some cases his preparatory drawings to continue to produce historical copies in enamel. He worked as Enamel Painter to William IV, Queen Adelaide, the Duchess of Kent, and to Prince Albert.

The ivory miniature prototype on which this enamel by Henry Pierce Bone is based has been attributed to Emma Kendrick, who described herself as Miniature Painter to the Hereditary Princess of Hesse-Homburg in 1818. Kendrick, who entered the RA Schools in 1808, must have painted Princess Elizabeth early in her career, as the image of the Princess appears almost contemporary with Henry Edridge's painting of her seated at her writing table dating to c.1810.

Princess Elizabeth, seventh child of George III and Queen Charlotte, married in 1818, at the age of forty-eight, Frederick, Hereditary Prince of Hesse-Homburg, later Frederick VI, Landgrave of Hesse-Homburg. A talented artist, who saw a series of her silhouettes and another of her own etchings published in her lifetime, she devoted her married years to the decoration of her new home at Bad Homburg, just as she had used her artistic skills in the embellishment of her earlier residences at Kew in London, Frogmore House and Windsor Castle.

Signed, dated and inscribed on the counter-enamel in red paint: H.R.H. Elizabeth / Landgravine of / Hesse Homberg. Londo[n] / Jan  y 1844. Painted by / Henry Pierce Bone / Enamel Painter to / Her Majesty & H.R.H. / Prince Albert &c.