King Richard III Playhouse Habit, Georgian Stage Costume, Jefferys Print, 1757

This is an original antique copper engraving from 1757, colored by hand, lettered "The Play-house Habit of King Richard the 3d." The king stands with a gold baton raised in one hand at the viewer's left and his other fist on his hip, a sword hanging at his side. He wears a black hat crowned with white plumes and a pink rosette, a small ruff, and a crimson robe lined and edged with ermine and bordered with white embroidery. Beneath it is a doublet worked with pink and white scrolls, a red sash, and trunk hose striped in gold and dark red. White stockings and pale shoes with pink rosettes complete the costume.

The English title is engraved in script below the image: "The Play-house Habit of King Richard the 3d." Beneath it, in smaller italic letters, is the French caption "Habit de Theater du Roi Richard 3d.", meaning "stage costume of King Richard III". The plate number 229 is engraved at lower right. The ordinal "3d" is engraved with a raised d. 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 later plates of the volume form a series titled The Habits of the Principal Characters on the English Stage, recording how leading parts were dressed in the London theaters of the period. Shakespeare's Richard III was then acted in Colley Cibber's version, and it was in the part of Richard that David Garrick made his London debut in 1741. The plate itself names no actor.

A strong theatrical figure, it suits a library, a music room or a collection of Shakespeare and theater subjects.

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