"Drew Adams" <drew.adams@oracle.com> writes:

>     > Good idea. How about showing two samples: foreground and background?
>
>     Like in `list-colors-display'? If that is not what you mean then I am
>     misunderstanding you.
>
> Yes, that's what I was thinking.
>
> But I was mistakenly thinking of colors, not faces. Please ignore my
> suggestion.

Your reply got me thinking. 

The following patch does exactly the same, except that it renders the
"sample" text to look just like the "sample" text in the `customize'
buffer. So that both are visually consistent examples.

The following screenshot shows how `describe-face' looks with the
attached patch, as compared with the `customize' buffer:

http://yrk.nfshost.com/images/faces-sample.png