These were usually commissioned for sentimental reasons and were often worn as bracelets, brooches, pendants or rings with richly decorated frames, serving the same emotional need as lockets hiding portraits or locks of hair.

[1] Eye miniatures are believed to have originated when the Prince of Wales (later George IV) felt the need to send the widow Maria Fitzherbert a token of his love.

This is regarded as the event which led to lovers' eyes becoming fashionable,[2] appearing between 1790 and the 1820s in the courts and affluent families of England, Russia, France and more rarely, America.

[3] These portraits could also be found on various other trinkets, framed by precious stones on the lids of toothpick containers, snuffboxes and other small vessels.

[5] A note in Lady Eleanor Butler's diary recorded the arrival of a young man who had made the Grand Tour, and had brought "an Eye, done in Paris and set in a ring – a true French idea.