Lady of Quality of Alsace Holding a Rose, Costume of 1577, Jefferys 1757

This is an original antique copper engraving with hand coloring, lettered "Habit of a Lady of Quality of Alsatia, in 1577." It is plate 154 from Thomas Jefferys' A Collection of the Dresses of Different Nations, published in London in 1757. The lady wears a small gray hat with a gold band over her hair, a ruff, and gold chains with a pendant. Her short gray jacket is trimmed in gold and has puffed sleeve heads in white and pale blue. One hand rests at her breast while the other holds a red rose. Her long mauve skirt, banded in dark brown near the hem, opens at the front over a yellow underskirt and trails behind her on the ground.

The English title is engraved in script below the figure, with the French caption "Dame de Alsace." (Lady of Alsace) beneath it and the plate number 154 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. Alsatia is the Latin form of Alsace, which the French caption names.

Thomas Jefferys, Geographer to his Royal Highness the Prince of Wales, published the second volume of A Collection of the Dresses of Different Nations, Antient and Modern from his premises in the Strand, London, in 1757. As the title page states, the figures follow the designs of Holbein, Vandyke, Hollar and others. The book was bilingual, with the French title Recueil des Habillements de Différentes Nations, and its plates pair an English title in script with a shorter French caption.

The plate works well framed on its own, or as part of a small group of regional costume prints in matching frames.

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