Frisian Couple after the Sermon, Dutch Costume Print, 1811

This is an original antique copper engraving with hand coloring, plate No. 7 of Maaskamp's series on Dutch dress and customs, captioned in Frisian and Dutch "Et wier kood ine Tjerke Heit! Het was koud in de Kerk, Vader!" A man and a woman walk home together. He wears a black tricorn over a white wig, a red and white checked neckcloth, a blue and white flowered waistcoat under a long brown coat with close set buttons, gray striped stockings and buckled shoes, and carries a carved wooden foot stove by its iron handle and a black book with a yellow edge. She wears an enormous flat straw hat painted with flowers over a lace cap, a coral necklace, a white kerchief and bodice worked in blue and pink, long black mitts, and a wide white skirt checked in red and blue, and she too holds a prayer book.

The Frisian line and the Dutch line beneath it both say "It was cold in church, Father!" The French caption reads "Mon homme, comme il faisoit froid au Sermon!", that is, "My husband, how cold it was at the sermon!" Below the image the credits read "C.F. Bounach, ad vidum. del:" at lower left, "J. Kuyper, direx." in the center and "L. Portman, Sculp." at lower right, naming C.F. Bounach as the draughtsman working from life, J. Kuyper as the artistic director and L. Portman as the engraver. The imprint reads "Amsterdam 1811 by E. Maaskamp, Kalverstraat en Dam No. 1." with a second line, "London Published by Colnaghi & Co. Cockspur Street No. 48", naming the London print sellers Colnaghi and Co.

The plate belongs to Afbeeldingen van de Kleedingen, Zeden en Gewoonten in de Noordelijke Provinciën van het Koningrijk der Nederlanden, the survey of dress, manners and customs in the northern Netherlands published in Amsterdam by Evert Maaskamp, with a parallel French text. Each plate pairs its figures with a short exchange in Dutch, sometimes in regional dialect, and in French, so the costume studies also read as small genre scenes.

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