This important miniature of Elizabeth I, shown in the early years of her reign, was ascribed by Graham Reynolds in 2011 to Nicholas Hilliard ('New Light on Nicholas Hilliard', British Art Journal, Vol. XII, No. 2, pp. 19-21). Reynolds took this to be  one of a group of nine early miniatures by Nicholas Hilliard painted at the outset of his career.  It is similar in treatment to another miniature of Elizabeth I in the Royal Collection (RCIN 420987). Both miniatures were examined under the microscope in 2018 by a panel of specialists when it was found that the painting of the eyes was similar in both works and that the costumes had been painted using similar pigments and techniques such as the curled strokes visible in the ruffs.  It was concluded, however, that although both works were by the same hand, the artist, working in the 1560s, was not Nicholas Hilliard. This conclusion leaves unresolved the question of how a partial inscription, apparently in Nicholas Hilliard's distinctive attenuated and elegant script, can be accounted for.

The costume, with the cloth-of-gold bodice and the heavy gold chain from which a jewel is suspended, emphasises the high status of the sitter; confirmation that the subject is indeed the Queen is found in the telling red and white roses (the symbol of the House of Tudor) which adorn her gold hair net. Roses are also seen embellishing Elizabeth's costume in what was previously thought to be the earliest miniature of her by Nicholas Hilliard dated 1572 and inscribed with a crowned 'ER' (National Portrait Gallery, London no. 108).