Gentleman of Nuremberg in Full Dress with Wig and Fur Gown, 1755, Jefferys 1757

This is an original antique copper engraving with hand coloring, lettered "Full Dress of a Gentleman of Nuremberg, in 1755." It is plate 171 from Thomas Jefferys' A Collection of the Dresses of Different Nations, published in London in 1757. The gentleman wears a full white periwig and a wide, flat white collar, with a gold chain across his chest. Over a long dark brown coat and breeches he has a fur-lined gown with puffed sleeves striped in purple and black. He holds a hat at his waist with his left hand and gestures with his right, a sword angles down behind him, and he wears gray stockings and buckled black shoes.

The English title is engraved in script below the figure, with the French caption "Habit de Ceremonie d'un Gentilhomme de Nuremberg." (Ceremonial dress of a gentleman of Nuremberg) beneath it and the plate number 171 at lower right. No engraver or designer is named on the plate. The date in the English title is the date of the costume shown; the print itself was published in 1757. Unlike the plates of the 1500s, this figure shows a dress worn only two years before the book appeared.

The plate comes from Volume II 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 was issued in English and French, with a French title page reading Recueil des Habillements de Différentes Nations, which is why every plate carries a caption in both languages.

The single figure on an open ground suits a simple mat and a narrow frame, alone or hung with other costume plates from the same volume.

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