Agnes Berry is shown in full relief facing to the front. She wears a white lace shawl over a dark red dress and a lace headdress. The bust is framed at the front by a blue curtain and the wax is set in a gilt surround within the oval giltwood frame.
During the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, low relief portraits in wax became popular in Britain and they were often exhibited at the Royal Academy, the Society of Artists and elsewhere. Waxes were used in a similar way to prints and medals, in order to disseminate the image of the sitter, or, like miniature paintings or silhouettes as portable mementoes.
