English Gentleman in 1588 with Shield and Sword, Jefferys Costume Print, 1757

This is an original antique copper engraving from 1757, colored by hand, lettered "Habit of an English Gentleman, in 1588." A young man stands with his weight on one leg, a round shield painted with a red cross bordered in yellow covering his right side, at the viewer's left, and a long sword angled down behind it. He wears a tall soft hat in buff with a pink scarf wound around the crown, a small ruff, and a white doublet with a short skirt, banded in black and closed with a row of buttons, its puffed sleeves edged with ruffles. A pink sash hangs at his waist, a striped cloak falls behind him, and white hose and pale shoes complete the figure.

The English title is engraved in script below the image: "Habit of an English Gentleman, in 1588." Beneath it, in smaller italic letters, is the French caption "Gentilhomme Anglois.", meaning "English gentleman". The plate number 213 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 English title page states that the old English dresses were taken after the designs of Holbein, Vandyke, Hollar and others, so the date in the caption belongs to the costume and not to the print. The date 1588 is the year of the Spanish Armada. The round shield with its cross and the short skirted doublet give this Elizabethan gentleman a martial air that suits the year.

The pale costume set against the warm paper makes a quiet, graphic image that frames well on its own or with the lady of the same year.

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