The source for Hanstein's miniature is recorded in an engraving by Carl Mayer of c.1863. Mayer's engraving may have been taken from one of the two portraits of the Grand Duchess painted by Franz Xaver Winterhalter (1805-73) c.1843 and in 1849 (current location of both unknown; see Winterhalter 1987 – 8, pp. 230 – 1).
Hanstein's miniature shows the Grand Duchess of Mecklenburg-Strelitz wearing a pale-grey evening dress, pearl necklace, and the Cambridge sapphire tiara with diamond earrings.The tiara formed part of a magnificent suite of sapphires including a necklace and bracelet belonging to the Grand Duchess's mother, Augusta, Duchess of Cambridge, and was subsequently left to her niece, Queen Mary.

Princess Augusta of Cambridge, eldest daughter of Adolphus, Duke of Cambridge, seventh son of George III, and of Princess Augusta, daughter of Frederick, Landgrave of Hesse-Cassel, married, in 1843, Frederick William, Hereditary Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, who succeeded his father in 1860. They had one surviving son who became Adolphus Frederick V, Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Strelitz.