Matron of Meissen in Green Cape and White Apron, Costume of 1577, Jefferys 1757

This is an original antique copper engraving with hand coloring, lettered "Habit of a Matron of Misnia, in 1577". It is plate 168 from Thomas Jefferys' A Collection of the Dresses of Different Nations, published in London in 1757. The matron faces the viewer with her hands folded. She wears a dark slate cap trimmed with gold over a white coif, a small ruff, and a brown fur-trimmed jacket with puffed pale yellow sleeve heads, laced over a striped bodice. A short green cape flares over her hips, and a long white apron covers the front of her full brown skirt, which is banded near the hem.

The English title is engraved in script below the figure, with the French caption "Dame Misnie" (Lady of Misnia) beneath it and the plate number 168 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. Misnia is the Latin name for Meissen in Saxony; the French caption reads only Dame Misnie, without a final stop.

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.