Milk Measuring at the Door, Dutch Costume Print, Maaskamp, 1811

An original antique hand colored engraving from Evert Maaskamp's Dutch costume series, published in Amsterdam in 1811, lettered in Dutch "Een pintje maar van daag, Neeltje!" and in French "Une pinte, ma fille! pas d'avantage." Two women meet at a green front door set in a brick wall. The housewife stands on the stone step in a white cap and kerchief, a lilac gown with a white leaf pattern, a blue and white checked apron and red slippers, holding a small colorful purse in a white cloth. The milkmaid bends over her tubs to pour from a white measure into a brown earthenware pot. She wears a painted straw hat over a blue flowered bonnet, coral beads, a red checked kerchief, a brown jacket and a deep blue apron, with a white yoke slung at her back. The two white wooden tubs have brass yellow handles.

The captions translate as "Just a little pint today, Neeltje!" and "One pint, my girl! no more". At left is "J. Kuyper, direx." and at right "L. Portman, Sculp.", and the plate is numbered "No. 4" above. The imprint reads "Amsterdam 1811. by E. Maaskamp, Kalverstraat en Dam No. 1." over "London Published by Colnaghi & Co. Cockspur Street No. 43."

The plate belongs to Evert Maaskamp's Afbeeldingen van de Kleedingen, Zeden en Gewoonten in Holland, published in Amsterdam with parallel Dutch and French captions and offered in London through Colnaghi and Co. The series records the dress, manners and customs of the northern Netherlands in numbered plates, each a small scene within a ruled border, and many of the captions are a line of dialogue spoken by one of the figures. J. Kuyper signs the plates as director, direx., and they were engraved by L. Portman and finished by hand in watercolor.

A single plate frames well on its own with the full caption showing, and a few plates from the series hung together make a coherent group of Dutch scenes.

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