Large room with large paintings or frescoes on the walls. 2 doors opposite each other. Plain floor and ceiling. 4 poster bed with flowered curtains, in which James II was born; now at Kensington Palace.

This watercolour was prepared for one of the plates in Henry William Pyne's 'History of the Royal Residences' (1816-19). Engraved by R. Reeve, the print was published on 1 September 1819.

Pyne's 'History of the Royal Residences' was a three-volume publication which encompassed a number of royal residences, including Windsor Castle (vol. 1), Buckingham House and Hampton Court Palace (vol. 2), and St James's Palace and Carlton House (vol. 3) presenting 100 hand-coloured engravings of exteriors and interiors accompanied by descriptive texts. The 100 watercolours which were engraved for the publication survive in the Royal Library; these watercolours are exactly the size of the image on the printed plates, and may perhaps have been intended as colour guides for the artists responsible for hand-painting the monochrome prints.

Of the three paintings visible here, two can be identified from the 1819 inventory of St James's Palace: Cristofano Allori’s Judith (404989) hangs over the mantle. The left overdoor is a Van Dyckian portrait of a Lady which cannot be identified; the right overdoor is Dobson’s portrait of the young James II (406985).