Corporal of the Warasdin Pandours in 1742, Hand Colored Jefferys Plate, 1757

This is an original antique copper engraving with hand coloring, lettered in script "Habit of a Corporal of the Warasdin Pandours, in 1742." The moustached soldier wears a tall fur cap with a white feather and a long red bag ending in a tassel that streams out to the left. His blue jacket is ragged at the edges over an open white shirt, a red case of pistols is strapped across his chest, and a fur cloak hangs over his left arm. He grips a short curved blade at his right hip beside a scabbard decorated with blue and yellow chevrons, and wears loose brown trousers, red stockings and tan shoes.

Below the title the French caption reads "Corporal des Pandores Waradins.", meaning corporal of the Waradin Pandours. The plate number 185 is engraved at lower right. No artist or engraver is named on the plate.

The plate belongs to the second volume of Thomas Jefferys' A Collection of the Dresses of Different Nations, Antient and Modern. Particularly Old English Dresses, published in London in 1757 by Jefferys, Geographer to his Royal Highness the Prince of Wales, in the Strand. The title page states that the figures were taken after the designs of Holbein, Vandyke, Hollar and others, and the work carried a parallel French title, Recueil des Habillements de Différentes Nations, which explains the two languages on every plate. Warasdin is the old German form of Varaždin in northern Croatia. Pandour units from the Habsburg frontier fought in the War of the Austrian Succession.

A single standing figure on a generous margin, it suits a simple mount and frame and works well alone or in a group with other plates from the series.

This is an original antique print, not a modern reproduction. This item is sold unframed.