diff --git a/include/qpdf/QPDFObjectHandle.hh b/include/qpdf/QPDFObjectHandle.hh
index af454e75..1128c3ed 100644
--- a/include/qpdf/QPDFObjectHandle.hh
+++ b/include/qpdf/QPDFObjectHandle.hh
@@ -1584,7 +1584,6 @@ class QPDFObjectHandle
         QPDF* qpdf,
         QPDFObjGen const& og,
         std::shared_ptr<QPDFObject> const& obj) :
-        initialized(true),
         qpdf(qpdf),
         og(og),
         obj(obj)
@@ -1640,8 +1639,6 @@ class QPDFObjectHandle
     static void warn(QPDF*, QPDFExc const&);
     void checkOwnership(QPDFObjectHandle const&) const;
 
-    bool initialized;
-
     // Moving members of QPDFObjectHandle into a smart pointer incurs
     // a substantial performance penalty since QPDFObjectHandle
     // objects are copied around so frequently.
@@ -1888,13 +1885,13 @@ QPDFObjectHandle::getGeneration() const
 inline bool
 QPDFObjectHandle::isIndirect() const
 {
-    return initialized && (getObjectID() != 0);
+    return (obj != nullptr) && (getObjectID() != 0);
 }
 
 inline bool
 QPDFObjectHandle::isInitialized() const
 {
-    return initialized;
+    return obj != nullptr;
 }
 
 // Indirect object accessors
@@ -1915,7 +1912,7 @@ QPDFObjectHandle::setParsedOffset(qpdf_offset_t offset)
 {
     // This is called during parsing on newly created direct objects,
     // so we can't call dereference() here.
-    if (initialized) {
+    if (isInitialized()) {
         this->obj->setParsedOffset(offset);
     }
 }
diff --git a/libqpdf/QPDFObjectHandle.cc b/libqpdf/QPDFObjectHandle.cc
index 32988b53..c8611e07 100644
--- a/libqpdf/QPDFObjectHandle.cc
+++ b/libqpdf/QPDFObjectHandle.cc
@@ -236,13 +236,11 @@ LastChar::getLastChar()
 }
 
 QPDFObjectHandle::QPDFObjectHandle() :
-    initialized(false),
     qpdf(nullptr)
 {
 }
 
 QPDFObjectHandle::QPDFObjectHandle(std::shared_ptr<QPDFObject> const& data) :
-    initialized(true),
     qpdf(nullptr),
     obj(data)
 {
@@ -369,7 +367,7 @@ QPDFObjectHandle::isDirectNull() const
     // Don't call dereference() -- this is a const method, and we know
     // objid == 0, so there's nothing to resolve.
     return (
-        initialized && (getObjectID() == 0) &&
+        isInitialized() && (getObjectID() == 0) &&
         (obj->getTypeCode() == QPDFObject::ot_null));
 }
 
@@ -2373,7 +2371,7 @@ QPDFObjectHandle::makeDirect(bool allow_streams)
 void
 QPDFObjectHandle::assertInitialized() const
 {
-    if (!initialized) {
+    if (!isInitialized()) {
         throw std::logic_error("operation attempted on uninitialized "
                                "QPDFObjectHandle");
     }
@@ -2608,7 +2606,7 @@ QPDFObjectHandle::assertPageObject()
 bool
 QPDFObjectHandle::dereference()
 {
-    if (!this->initialized) {
+    if (!isInitialized()) {
         return false;
     }
     if (this->obj->getTypeCode() == QPDFObject::ot_unresolved) {