Oval facsimile miniature in watercolour on paper, possibly with a photographic base, in an oval silver metal suspension locket, with the glazed front surrounded by cut brilliants and the flat metal back engraved with a central floral pattern within a corded metal edge moulding. The sitter is shown long bust-length, facing the viewer but with her head and gaze turned to her right. She wears a high-waisted décolleté white gown, with a cameo or similar pendant on the narrow blue ribbon that goes round the neck and waist of the gown, and a black choker. She has powdered curled hair bound with a white fillet on top and brown eyes.This is a very close copy of the original miniature traditionally said to be of Horatia Nelson and attributed to James Holmes (MNT0213). It was presented as part of the Nelson-Ward collection by her grandson, the Revd Hugh Nelson-Ward, in November 1947, though a paper label on the reverse says 'Nelson-Ward 1948'. The original was in the large miniature collection of the dealer Edward Joseph, of 158 Bond Street, by 1889: this was well-known and much exhibited. After he retired it was sold by Christie's as a single lot in June 1890 and MNT0213, and others, appear to have passed via Agnew's to J. Pierpont Morgan, from whose collection Sir James Caird bought it for the Museum in 1935.

This copy was probably specially made for the Nelson-Ward family and probably while Joseph still held the original. Hallett Hyatt was a photographer working in London (111 Oxford Street) at the end of the 19th and into the 20th century. He seems to have made a speciality of using photographic techniques to produce engraved reproductions, hand-coloured when required, for high-quality limited-edition works. He was responsible for the heliogravure monochrome and extra hand-coloured illustrations in a number of the catalogues compiled by G.C. Williamson of the Pierpont Morgan collection, including his 4-volume 'Catalogue of the Miniatures in the Collection of J. Pierpont Morgan' ( 4 vols, 1906-08). Holmes's original is no. 379 in volume 2 (1906) but it was not among those illustrated, which is one reason for supposing this copy may have been made earlier through Joseph. Circumstantial support is added by an unnamed writer who knew him, as explained in a serial article on miniatures in the ‘Arts and Crafts Magazine’ (vols 1-2) 1904. This states that Joseph had a passion for those of Richard Cosway and his contemporaries, owned about 70 - many well-known by frequent exhibition - and that ‘Each … was enshrined among precious stones, or, at the very least, in a frame of solid gold. In some instances their owner [Joseph] made the mistake of lavishing too much richness on these settings, sometimes adding pearls and rubies or diamonds to an original frame already somewhat too showy with coloured enamels. He had photographs taken of the collection and mounted in a handsomely printed descriptive catalogue for private circulation. A copy of this book he gave to the present writer… .’ Joseph’s catalogue has yet to be sighted but if Hyatt took the photographs, MNT0041 may be a hand-coloured ‘offprint’ framed, as it seems, in Joseph’s ‘showy’ style. For the reasons why identification of the sitter is now doubted see MNT0213.