Woman of Broeck, Dutch Regional Dress, Antique Ackermann Print, 1817

An original antique engraving, colored by hand, from Miss Semple's The Costume of the Netherlands, lettered "Woman of Broeck". A young woman stands with her head inclined, wearing a dark hood that falls over her shoulders, gold drop earrings and a black choker with a gold clasp. A white kerchief fills the neck of a brown jacket with short sleeves and white cuffs, and the front shows a pale laced panel crossed in a grid. A long pink apron with fine horizontal stripes covers a blue skirt, and she wears black shoes with white buckles. Rounded bushes stand at the left and a dark green shrub at the lower right.

The caption is engraved in script below the image as "Woman of Broeck", and beneath it is the publisher's imprint "Published Jan.y 1-1817, at R. Ackermann's, 101 Strand." No artist's or engraver's name is lettered on the plate; the drawings for the series are credited to Miss Semple on the title of the work.

The plate belongs to The Costume of the Netherlands, published in 1817 at Rudolph Ackermann's Repository of Arts, 101 Strand, London. The title of the work describes it as displayed in thirty colored engravings after drawings from nature by Miss Semple, with descriptions in English and French. Its figures cover the Dutch provinces, Flanders and Brabant, and the French border country around Valenciennes, each shown in everyday working or market dress rather than in formal portraiture. Ackermann issued many of the best known illustrated books of Regency London, and the plates of this work were colored by hand after printing.

The figure sits well in a simple narrow frame with a wide mount, and plates from the same work make a coherent group on one wall.

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