Head-and-part-shoulders bronze bust of James Watt on a tall marble oblong pillar with a bronze plaque on the front. The piece also has two associated square wooden plinths. The sitter is shown in old age, facing forward with his head bowed, his hair brushed back from a receding forehead and long enough to fall slightly over his ears.

The back of the bust bears the cursive inscription 'After Chantry [sic] by Kellock Brown' and the plaque on the plinth, 'James Watt 1736-1819'. The whole ensemble was presented in September 1982 by the Institution of Engineers and Shipbuilders in Scotland, at Glasgow, when they were reducing their holdings as part of an office move.

There are many versions of both busts and statues of Watt by Sir Francis Chantrey (including the monumental seated statue now in the Scottish National Portrait Gallery).

Watt, an engineer and mathematician born in Greenock, Scotland, was one of the towering figures of the Industrial Revolution, and most famous as the inventor of the steam engine. Kellock Brown (1856-1934) was a well-known Glasgow-born Scottish sculptor, son of a metal worker and brother of the painter Alexander Kellock Brown. Trained by his father, at the Glasgow School of Art and in London, including at the RA Schools, he moved back to Glasgow where he initially taught at the GSA and also based his practice. He did many monuments to Scottish figures and was a regular exhibitor, both in Scotland and at the Royal Academy in London.