Lady of Quality in France with a Striped Toque, Jefferys Costume Plate, 1757

An original antique print, a copper engraving colored by hand, lettered "Habit of a Lady of Quality in France." Shown in profile and looking toward the viewer's left, a woman wears a tall striped toque in crimson and gold with a pink plume, her hair braided beneath it, and a small ruff. Her lavender gray gown has a square embroidered yoke in cream and gold and puffed upper sleeves, and she lifts its skirt with one hand to reveal a pale yellow underskirt. A rust orange scarf falls from her shoulder and streams out behind her to the viewer's right. In her other hand, held at her waist, she carries a pair of gloves.

The English title is engraved in script beneath the image: "Habit of a Lady of Quality in France." Below it is the French caption "Damoiselle Francoise." (in English, "French Damsel"), and the plate number 126 is engraved at lower right. No engraver or designer 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. 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 carried a parallel French title, Recueil des Habillements de Différentes Nations, which explains the French caption on each plate. It falls among the French figures of the volume. The plate itself was published in 1757.

Framed with a generous mat, it makes a crisp accent for a dressing room, a study or a hallway.

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