Count of Flanders and Protector of the Dutch in 1582, Jefferys, 1757

An original antique print, a copper engraving colored by hand, lettered "Habit of a Count of Flanders and protector of the Dutch in 1582." A man in a red cap trimmed with fur and a high ruff stands in armor, with a crimson mantle lined and bordered in fur thrown over his shoulders and falling to the ground. Beneath the breastplate, hung with a gold chain, he wears full yellow breeches with white lace edged linings showing at the knee, and dark boots. One hand rests on his hip, and in the other, at the viewer's right, he holds a gold scepter. A sword angles down behind him toward the viewer's left.

Two lines of lettering run below the figure. The English title, in a flowing script, reads "Habit of a Count of Flanders and protector of the Dutch in 1582." The French caption beneath it reads "Comte de Flandre et Protecture de la Liberté Belgique.", meaning "Count of Flanders and Protector of Belgic Liberty", and the number 141 is engraved at lower right. "Belgique" here means the Low Countries as a whole. The plate carries no engraver or designer credit.

The plate comes from the second volume of Thomas Jefferys' A Collection of the Dresses of Different Nations, Antient and Modern. Particularly Old English Dresses. After the Designs of Holbein, Vandyke, Hollar, and others, published in London in 1757 by Jefferys, Geographer to his Royal Highness the Prince of Wales, in the Strand. The work carried a parallel French title, Recueil des Habillements de Différentes Nations, which explains the French caption on each plate. It falls among the figures from the Low Countries in the volume. The date places the figure in the years of the revolt of the Netherlands against Spain. The year in the English title is the date of the costume shown, not of the print, which was published in 1757.

Framed with a generous mat, it makes a crisp accent for a dressing room, a study or a hallway.

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