John Simpson's enamel derives from a watercolour sketch of Princess Marguerite by Sir William Ross of c.1848 (present location unknown). Queen Victoria wrote to Leopold I, King of the Belgians, on 29 January 1850: 'Little Marguerite is a provoking & obstinate little thing & absolutely refusing to speak either with us or her little Cousins; she never will be near as pretty as her lovely, dear Mother' (RA VIC/Y 95/3).

Princesse Marguerite d'Orléans, daughter of Louis, duc de Nemours, and Victoire, daughter of Duke Ferdinand of Saxe-Coburg, married in 1872, as his second wife, Prince Wladyslaw Czartoryski.

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 and inscribed on the counter-enamel in black paint: Princess Marguerite d'Orleans / Daughter of the / Duc de Nemours born 1846 / Simpson after Ross.