Habit of a Swiss Officer in 1588, Hand Colored Jefferys Costume Plate, 1757

This is an original antique copper engraving with hand coloring, lettered in script "Habit of a Swiss Officer in 1588". The officer is seen from behind and turns his bearded face in profile toward the left, under a red cap with a dark plume and a white ruff at his neck. His pale yellow doublet has huge puffed sleeves worked in a red lattice, his paned breeches are slashed and tipped with red, and his stockings are striped in pink and blue and gartered in red. A long curved sword hangs at his side, its blade sweeping out to the right, and he casts a shadow across the ground to the left.

Beneath the English title the French caption reads "Officier Suisse.", meaning Swiss officer. The plate number 182 is engraved at lower right. No artist or engraver is named on the plate.

The plate belongs to the second volume of Thomas Jefferys' A Collection of the Dresses of Different Nations, Antient and Modern. Particularly Old English Dresses, published in London in 1757 by Jefferys, Geographer to his Royal Highness the Prince of Wales, in the Strand. The title page states that the figures were taken after the designs of Holbein, Vandyke, Hollar and others, and the work carried a parallel French title, Recueil des Habillements de Différentes Nations, which explains the two languages on every plate. The date in the caption refers to the costume shown, not to the print. Swiss infantry served widely as hired soldiers in sixteenth century Europe.

A single standing figure on a generous margin, it suits a simple mount and frame and works well alone or in a group with other plates from the series.

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