Joseph Lee's enamel is based on Sir William Ross's (1794-1860) earliest miniature of Queen Victoria, painted from sittings in late 1837 (420959; Royal Collection) and showing her in an unassuming head and shoulders format with only a trace of the Garter ribbon over her left shoulder hinting at her regal status. The present enamel was commissioned by Queen Victoria as a present for Prince Albert in 1845 and its purchase is recorded in the Queen's private accounts: 'To J. Lee for an Enamel of VR after Ross for Albert Aug. 26 £18.18.0.' (18 guineas) (RA VIC/ADDT/231/95); it subsequently hung in a display at Buckingham Palace.

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.