[1] It was discovered by James Dunlop in 1826 and subsequently entered into the New General Catalogue as NGC 1291 by Johan Ludvig Emil Dreyer.

John Herschel then observed the same object in 1836 and entered it into the catalog as NGC 1269 without realizing that it was a duplicate.

It has a prominent bulge, and is forming stars in its disk, albeit slowly, being a lenticular galaxy.

[3] Like other early-type galaxies, NGC 1291 has a population of old globular clusters.

About 65% of them belong to the "blue" population that is more metal-poor, while the rest are "red" and more metal-rich.