Countess of Holland and Zealand in 1200, Jefferys Costume Plate, 1757

An original antique print, a copper engraving colored by hand, lettered "Habit of a Countess of Holland & Zealand in 1200." A young woman stands facing the viewer with one hand extended toward the viewer's left and the other on her hip. She wears a purple turban set with a jewel and a tall gold feather, her hair escaping in a curl. Her long pale blue gown, worked with gold scrolls, has a V neck and enormous hanging sleeves lined in brown and edged with green scalloped leaf shapes, and the same green and brown leaf pattern forms the lower part of her skirt. A gold belt crosses her body diagonally to a medallion at the hip, with long tassels hanging below.

The English title is engraved in script beneath the image: "Habit of a Countess of Holland & Zealand in 1200." Below it is the French caption "Comtesse de Hollande et Zealand." (in English, "Countess of Holland and Zealand"), and the plate number 138 is engraved at lower right. The ampersand in the English title and the spelling "Zealand" are as engraved; "Countess" and "Comtesse" use the long s. No engraver or designer is named on the plate.

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 year in the English title is the date of the costume shown, not of the print, which was published in 1757.

A cream or ivory mat brings out the hand coloring against the plain paper.

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