Eltruda in the Masque of Alfred, Georgian Stage Costume, Jefferys Print, 1757

This is an original antique copper engraving from 1757, colored by hand, lettered "Habit of Eltruda in the Masque of Alfred." Eltruda stands facing the viewer, a gauze veil and hood framing her face and falling behind her to the ground. Several strands of pearls hang at her neck. She wears a short black jacket with puffed sleeves, trimmed with white, over a gown of golden yellow silk scattered with small white sprigs. One hand is raised at her breast, and a dark train edged with ermine sweeps out behind her at the viewer's right.

The English title is engraved in script below the image: "Habit of Eltruda in the Masque of Alfred." Beneath it, in smaller italic letters, is the French caption "Eltrude, dans le Masque d'Alfred", meaning "Eltruda, in the masque of Alfred". The plate number 234 is engraved at lower right. No engraver or artist 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, published in London in 1757 by Jefferys, Geographer to his Royal Highness the Prince of Wales, in the Strand. The work has a parallel French title page, Recueil des Habillements de Différentes Nations, which is why each plate is captioned in both languages. The later plates of the volume form a series titled The Habits of the Principal Characters on the English Stage, recording how leading parts were dressed in the London theaters of the period. Alfred, the masque by James Thomson and David Mallet with music by Thomas Arne, was first performed in 1740 and is remembered as the work that introduced "Rule, Britannia". Eltruda is the queen of King Alfred.

The yellow gown and black jacket make an elegant contrast, and the plate suits a music room or a collection of theater prints.

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