A cartouche-shaped ivory tablet hinged book and pencil, the front inset inset with a glazed and gold-framed watercolour of Empress Maria Theresa with her son, Joseph (b. 1741). The framed portrait she holds on her left has a crown surmount and, rather than her husband, Francis I of Lorraine (1708-65), it may represent her father, the Emperor Charles VI (1685-1740) , whose Pragmatic Sanction of 1713 enabled her to claim her inheritance as a female in line to the succession (see also RCIN 420692-3). The miniaturist has been identified with reference to a very similar engraving, published by Gottfried Bernhard Goetz c. 1745-50. The reverse of the tablet is decorated with a crowned cypher MT. A pencil is attached to the side, surmounted by a gold crown.