A pencil annotation to the text of the Inventory of Miniatures in the Royal Library, Windsor Castle, 1881, records that this miniaure was 'after a picture at Herrenhausen', seat of the Kings of Hanover in Germany.The painting formerly at Herrenhausen may be the portrait by a follower of Henri Gascars sold at the Schloss Marienburg sale, Sotheby's, Deutschland, 5 – 15 October 2005, lot 61 (present location unknown). Another annotation on the opposite page in the Royal Library Inventory of 1881 states that the miniature was 'bought from Mr. Whitehead's collection, sold at the Fine Art Society'. A miniature of Sophia Dorothea, Queen of George I, unattributed, was exhibited at the Burlington Fine Arts Club 1889, no. 36, and at the New Gallery 1891, no. 979, from the collection of Jeffery Whitehead, but this miniature cannot be associated with the present miniature which was first recorded in the inventories in the Royal Collection in 1851.

Sophia Dorothea, daughter of George William, Duke of Brunswick-Luneburg and Celle, married in 1682 George, Prince of Hanover, later George I, King of England, by whom she had a son, George II, and a daughter. The marriage failed, and following their divorce in 1694 George I had her confined to the moated castle of Ahlden for the remainder of her life.

Signed and dated on the reverse in pencil: A. Schäfer / fec. / Hannover / 1845; a label attached to the reverse is inscribed by the artist in ink: [Nach einem Öhlgemäld]e von D.H. Gascar. Venedig 1686 / [c]opirt von A. Schäfer / 1845. A second label attached to the reverse is inscribed in white chalk: Sophia Dorothea / b. 1666 – d. 1726.