The sitter was Queen consort of King George II (see the previous lot). She reigned with him from 1727 until her premature death in 1737 and had eight children, including Frederick, Prince of Wales, father of King George III. Queen Caroline was known for her intelligence, wit and political opinion. She collected around herself a group of artists and intellectuals, including Robert Walpole and Jonathan Swift. A keen collector, The Catalogue of the Pictures and Drawings in the Closet of the late Queen Caroline (1758) at Kensington Palace reveals a particular fondness for miniatures, enamels and wax and ivory carvings. The catalogue, which was compiled in 1743, includes 'limnings' by Samuel Cooper and Peter Oliver, as well as the large and distinctive enamel by Charles Boit of Queen Anne and Prince George of Denmark, still identifiable today in the British Royal Collection (RCIN 421497).
Another version of the present miniature, and a larger one showing more of the sitter's dress, signed, dated and inscribed on the counter-enamel 'Carolina Regina / Magn: Britan ; / C F: Zincke. Fecit / 1727', are in the Royal Collection (see R. Walker, The Eighteenth and Early Nineteenth Century Miniatures in the Collection of Her Majesty The Queen, Cambridge 1992, pp. 21-22, nos. 36 and 35, respectively).