Rectangular tortoiseshell and gold box, with foliate scrolls and mouldings inset with a glazed miniature of Queen Charlotte: half length, seated, facing slightly right, head turned and tilted slightly left, gesturing with her left hand to a crown on a blue and gold chair; wearing state robes and a brown dress, with tiara; blue eyes.

On 23 June 1826 Rundell, Bridge and Rundell were paid £27 6s for setting this miniature 'of Her Late Majesty Queen Charlotte' into the top of a tortoiseshell snuff box lined with gold. The miniature is however much earlier. It depicts Queen Charlotte when Princess of Mecklenburg-Strelitz. Dressed in state robes, she gestures toward the ducal crown of Mecklenburg-Strelitz. The portrait is derived from a full-size three-quarter-length portrait in the Collection by the Danish artist Johann George Ziesenis (1716-76), perhaps painted to commemorate the Princess's betrothal to George III in June 1761 (RCIN 403562). This miniature was probably painted by Ziesenis's daughter Elisabeth, who is known to have copied her father's work extensively; another miniature of Charlotte, after the same source, is inscribed on the back La Reine d'Angleterre peint par Elisabeth Ziesenis 1761 (Hanover, Historiches Museum).

At least two pictures of the Princess were sent to George III prior to his marriage. It is tempting to suggest that this was one of them. Colonel Graeme, sent to Mecklenburg-Strelitz to report on the suitability of the Princess, thought the first picture 'a Daub'. He procured a second, 'done by a young woman from Schwerin', from the Princess's great-aunt. This he thought 'Like Her' although 'I cannot say flattered, And the nose badly done'.

Catalogue entry adapted from George III & Queen Charlotte: Patronage, Collecting and Court Taste, London, 2004