Oval miniature in watercolour on ivory, in an oval silver frame set alternately round the edge with twenty pearls and twenty green gemstones. The item also has a red leather case. Nelson is shown bust-length, bare-headed, facing the front but looking to his right with a single gold medal (for the Battle of Cape St Vincent, 1797) round his neck on a blue ribbon, and the star of the Order of the Bath on the left breast of his uniform coat.

The image is a copy of Abbott's well known portrait of 1797-98, showing Nelson as a rear-admiral, of which he painted many versions (the Museum examples of this pattern are BHC2887 and BHC2888), which was also engraved in the 19th century. The likeness of Nelson is unmistakeable but he has none the less been idealized as a clean-cut, youthful Victorian Christian hero, rather younger than Abbott showed him.