Sophia, Duchess of Brunswick and Lunenburg in Court Dress of 1700, 1757

This is an original antique copper engraving with hand coloring, lettered "Habit of Lady Sophia, Dutchess of Brunswick & Lunenbourg, in 1700." It is plate 156 from Thomas Jefferys' A Collection of the Dresses of Different Nations, published in London in 1757. The duchess wears a tall white lace headdress of the fontange type, a pearl necklace with a pendant cross and a flower at her breast. Her red gown is looped back from a green petticoat richly worked with gold ornament, and its sleeves end in tiers of white ruffles. Her gloved left hand is raised to her breast, her gloved right hand holds a closed fan, and a long red train edged with white flounces sweeps across the ground toward the viewer's left.

The English title is engraved in script below the figure, with the French caption "Duchesse de Brunsuic et Lunenburgh." (Duchess of Brunswick and Lüneburg) beneath it and the plate number 156 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.

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.