This fully-illustrated catalogue accompanies the exhibition of portrait miniatures from the Royal Collection shown in 1996-97 in the United Kingdom and America. The artists represented range from Lucas Hornebolte, Henry VIII's limner, painting in the 1520s, to Sir William Charles Ross and his Victorian contemporaries.

The collection has particular strengths in the Tudor and Stuart period and the catalogue illustrates fine examples of the work of Hans Holbein the Younger, Francois Clouet, Nicholas Hilliard, Isaac and Peter Oliver, John Hoskins, Samuel Cooper, Jean Petitot and Charles Boit. Some of the best eighteenth-century miniaturists are also represented, such as C. F. Zincke, Jeremiah Meyer, and Richard Cosway.

While many of the images in the catalogue are well-known, others have never been seen before in public, such as Jean-Etienne Liotard's Self-Portrait. The seventy-five miniatures are illustrated in colour and accompanied by a catalogue entry. The catalogue also includes three introductory essays: on the formation of the Royal Collection; the development of the miniature, its style and technique; and a social history of the miniature, together with a full bibliography.