Woman in a Ruffled Bonnet, Profile Portrait in an Oval, Engraving, circa 1785
€ 165
Original antique · The actual sheet photographed · Certificate of authenticity on request · Sold unframed · Worldwide shipping from € 15 (rates)
Date
circa 1785
Mapmaker / artist
Unsigned engraving
Publisher
Not named on the sheet
Technique
Engraving
Coloring
Uncolored
Condition
Good
Reference
BG-14343-62
What the condition grades mean
Excellent
Bright and clean, with no faults worth mentioning.
Very good
Only light signs of age, such as faint toning.
Good
Normal signs of age for a sheet of this period: toning, some foxing, small marks or neat old repairs.
Fair
Clear faults such as staining, tears or repairs, priced to match.
Every fault we see is written in the condition note, and the whole sheet is shown uncropped in the photos.
Condition
Good condition for its age. Light toning; deckled edges; a few small spots in the margins, mostly lower left. The image is clean. Please review the images for further condition details.
About this sheet
An unlettered engraved portrait of a young woman in profile to the right, set in an oval against a dark, finely cross hatched ground. She wears a voluminous bonnet of gathered muslin, trimmed with layers of pleated frills, over hair dressed in rows of rolled curls at the side and back, and a gauzy fichu with a ruffled edge at the shoulder. Her features are delicately drawn, with a hint of a smile, a straight nose and a softly rounded chin.
The oval sits high in a large rectangular plate, and the space below it is blank: there is no name, no artist's or engraver's credit and no imprint. Plates of this kind were often printed before the lettering was added, or engraved for private circulation among family and friends, and the sitter is not identified on the sheet.
The bonnet and the dressing of the hair are those of the fashionable women of the seventeen eighties, the decade of the great frilled caps and elaborate coiffures before the French Revolution, and the profile format reflects the period's enthusiasm for the silhouette and for clear, almost sculptural likenesses in the antique manner. The plate mark is clearly impressed around the image, and the sheet keeps its deckled edges.
The engraving is fine and even, with the folds of the muslin built up in close parallel lines and the ground worked in a dense, regular cross hatching that throws the white of the bonnet forward. It is a charming and elegant small portrait, ideal for a bedroom or dressing room or for a wall of eighteenth century portraits and fashion prints, and a lovely document of costume in the last years of the old regime.
Condition: Good condition for its age. Light toning; deckled edges; a few small spots in the margins, mostly lower left. The image is clean. Please review the images for further condition details.
This is an original antique print, not a modern reproduction. This item is sold unframed. Any framed or interior images are shown for presentation and inspiration only, unless the listing explicitly states that the item is sold framed.
