English Lady of Quality in 1588 with Feather Fan, Jefferys Costume Print, 1757

This is an original antique copper engraving from 1757, colored by hand, lettered "Habit of an English Lady of Quality, in 1588." A young woman stands facing the viewer in a blue gown striped with darker blue, its long hanging sleeves falling behind her almost to the ground. The open skirt shows a golden yellow forepart worked with a scrolling pattern above a pink border with a lattice design. A small ruff frames her face, a medallion hangs on a pink ribbon at her breast, and her hair is dressed with a row of pearls. In one hand, at the viewer's right, she holds a feather fan on a long gold handle; in the other she gathers a pale cloth, and a blue muff edged with fur hangs from a long ribbon in front of her skirt.

The English title is engraved in script below the image: "Habit of an English Lady of Quality, in 1588." Beneath it, in smaller italic letters, is the French caption "Dame Anglois de Qualite.", meaning "English lady of quality". The plate number 212 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 year 1588 is the year of the Spanish Armada, in the reign of Elizabeth I.

It pairs naturally with the English gentleman of the same year.

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