This miniature appears to be a copy by Anne Mee (1780/5-1851) of her own original portrait painted about 1800 and belonging to the sitter's brother, Augustus, Duke of Sussex. The costume is possibly intended to represent Mary, Queen of Scots. After the death of the princess in 1810, it became very popular and was much copied by Mee and others, including the miniature painter Charlotte Jones.

Anne Mee was the daughter of the artist John Foldsone. She was educated in London and was a protégée and pupil of the portrait painter George Romney. Lady Courtown introduced her to Queen Charlotte, and Charlotte Papendiek, journalist and assistant keeper of the wardrobe to Queen Charlotte, described Anne Mee drawing the queen and princesses at Windsor in 1790. Mee visited frequently after that date and obtained the patronage of George IV, when Prince of Wales, who commissioned the ‘Gallery of Beauties of George III’ – fashionable ladies of whom one list is in the royal archives and another printed in the Ladies Monthly Museum XVI (January 1814).

The miniature is set in a rectangular chased gold box with rounded corners and a hinged lid, struck with London hallmarks for 18ct gold, 1807/8 with duty mark and mark of Alexander Strachan.