This is one of a group of nine oil miniatures by a variety of unknown hands dating from c. 1610-70, which are identified as members of one or other of the Saxon Duchies The group are mounted together in a nineteenth-century wooden mount and are believed to have been bought by Queen Victoria. They were first recorded in the Royal Collection in 1870. The sitter was traditionally identified as John Ernest, Duke of Saxe-Eisenach (1566-1638), but as the costume points to a date of c. 1620-30, the sitter appears too young for this identification to be correct.