The calligraphic handwritten inscription on the backing card is most likely by the artist himself but executed slightly later than the miniature as it was only on 19 July 1789 that Palatine Elector Charles Theodore ennobled Hurter, upgrading the artist's signature to 'de Hurter'.
The portrait after which the present miniature is inspired, by Joos van Cleve and not by Holbein as Hurter believed in 1788, is in the British Royal Collection (RCIN 403368). It was acquired by Charles I from the Earl of Arundel.
The counter-enamel indicates that the present miniature was destined for the collection of Empress Catherine the Great. On 30 May 1787 Hurter received in Paris the substantial sum of 661 louis d'or from the Empress's agent, Baron Frédéric Melchior de Grimm, in exchange for fifteen enamel miniatures in ormolu frames. Although the Empress was not impressed with her acquisition, Hurter supplied her with a total of around forty enamels in total, according to his correspondence with Johannes von Müller (J.-C. Genoud [ed.], 100 ans de miniatures suisses 1780-1880, Geneva, 1999, p. 51).
An enamel which formed part of a subsequent imperial commission depicting Lord Thomas Howard, Earl of Arundel after Van Dyck is signed in similar fashion to the present miniature, but with the location and date as 'Paris 1787'. Part of the private collection of Empress Catherine the Great at the Winter Palace, the portrait of Arundel entered the Hermitage in 1826 (see exhibition catalogue Caterina di Russia, l'imperatrice e le arti, Florence, Palazzo Strozzi, 1998, p. 112, no. 102).