Born in Warwickshire, England, William Birch became a leading artist in baked-enamel miniatures, a master copyist, jewelry maker and an engraver of notes. He remains best known for his enamel copies of portraits of George Washington, copied from paintings of Gilbert Stuart. Sir Joshua Reynolds was a patron and strong supporter of Birch and encouraged the young man to copy many of his portraits.

Birch attended Latin School as a youngster but showed little interest in formal education, so his family sent him to Thomas Jeffreys, a London jeweler, for study. He showed immediate talent in making enamel miniatures, which were first exhibited at the Society of Artists in 1775, when he was only age 20. Ten years later that Society gave him a...