Though no details are given on this print of the engraver or original portrait (or even the sitter - Dr Herschel has been added by hand) it is almost certainly after a 1785 portrait by Lemel F. Abbott which now belongs to the National Portrait Gallery, London.

The Abbott portrait was commissioned by William Herschel's friend, William Watson Jnr (1744?-1825) whose father had just been painted by the same artist. On the artist Watson wrote to Herschel 'He will I doubt not exert his very best, as he will be sensible thtat he is painting for posterity as well as for the present time.' Watson owned the painting until his death, whereapon it was bought by a Bath dealer, Robert Walker who died in 1860. It was then purchased by the National Portrait Gallery, London.

Prints were often made from paintings, frequently long after the painting had been completed and in some cases long after they were exhibited. These prints would then be bought either individually or as part of a subscription series and added to a private print collection. Print collections were popular particularly with upper middle class families in the 19th century. They can often be seen as self consciously biographical, made up of people, places and ideas to which they felt a particular connection, or to which they would like to have been seen to have a particular connection.