This bust appears to be a copy of the central figure of Psyche in John Gibson's marble group Psyche and the Zephyrs, executed in 1822 for the collector Sir George Beaumont. The present whereabouts of Psyche and the Zephyrs is unknown. This bust, entered as an example of chasing in metal, was a prize object in the Society of Arts Exhibition held in 1863. ('Chasing' is the art of modelling or patterning the surfaces of metal objects.) The objects entered into the competitions were mainly reproductions of known works, such as this present piece.

There has been found no information about W. Holliday (dates unknown; active 1863), presumably a sculptor who exhibited at the Society of Arts Art-Workmanship Competition of 1863. The Society of Arts Art-Workmanship Competitions were held between 1863-71 and were established for the encouragement of art-workmanship applicable to manufactures. The bust was cast by Domenico Brucciani and C. Delpech after the original. Some of the most important plaster casts acquired by the Museum were commissioned through the Anglo-Italian firm established by Domenico Brucciani (1815-1880). His most illustrious achievement was the cast of the Portal of the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela. The importance of the Brucciani cast selling business in the supply of casts to art schools, and the strong connections with the British Museum and the V&A were such that when the company ran into financial difficulties in 1921, it was taken over by the Board of Education as a public service, and organised as an educational branch of the V&A, named the Department for the Sale of Casts. The sale of casts continued at the Museum till 1951.