This colour stipple engraving is framed in a contemporary verre églomisé frame. Verre églomisé, from the French term meaning 'glass gilded', is a process where the backside of the glass is gilded with gold or metal leaf using a gelatin adhesive. The result is a mirror-like, reflective finish in which designs are then engraved. The technique has along history, but its name is derived from 18th-century French decorator and art-dealer Jean-Baptise Glomy (1711–1786) who was responsible for its repopularization.

This became a fashionable method for framing coloured prints towards the end of the 18th century; it was also popular for framing embroidered pictures. This frame is lettered with the title of the print. There is another impression in the collection with full lettering (see E.5059-1910).

Stipple engraving is said to have been invented in France, but it was developed and became popular in England. It was essentially a means of reproduction rather than a method for original printmaking. It was popular for reproducing paintings of decorative mythological, classical and pastoral subjects, as well as portraits. The work of Angelica Kauffmann, who made a specility of such subjects, was much reproduced by this method.