Charles James Fox (1749-1806) was a Whig statesman, orator and friend of George, Prince of Wales. His parliamentary career spanned 38 years; he was Britain’s first Foreign Secretary, and a prominent opponent of George III and William Pitt the Younger. He spent almost all his political career in opposition, campaigned for the abolition of slavery, supported the French Revolution, and advocated religious tolerance and individual liberty. He led a notorious and colourful private life, was a gambler running up huge debts, and an inveterate womaniser. It was thought that the character of Charles Surface in Richard Brinsley Sheridan's play School for Scandal was modelled on Fox.

This enamel is a copy by Henry Bone (1755-1834) of John Opie’s full-length portrait exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1805, and now at Holkham Hall, Norfolk.  It shows Fox ‘cropped and without powder, his hair a grisly grey’ as described by Joseph Farington, the landscape artist and diarist, on 17 November at the hustings in New Palace Yard, Westminster.

Bone was born in Truro in Cornwall, the son of a woodcarver and cabinet maker, and began his artistic career painting on china for local manufacturers. In about 1779, he moved to London, where he became established as one of the most outstanding enamellists of his day. His children and grandchildren also became miniaturists. He painted designs for lockets, watches and jewellery. He was principally a copyist and his large-scale enamels were based on paintings by Old Masters and leading contemporary artists. He exhibited over 240 items at the Royal Academy between 1781 and 1832, when his eyesight began to fail. He was appointed enamel painter to the future George IV in 1801, before holding the same position to George III from 1809, and later George IV and William IV. Bone could obtain top prices for his work – in 1811 he received 2,200 guineas for his framed Bacchus and Ariadne. He was described by a contemporary as a ‘worthy, kind, liberal and affectionate man’.

The miniature is signed and dated on the lower right HBone / 1805 and inscribed by the artist on the reverse in black paint: London Novr 1805 / Painted for His Royal Highness the / Prince of Wales by Henry Bone / A.R.A. Enamel painter to His / Royal Highness after the Original / by John Opie R.A. Professor / of Painting to the Royal Academy.