later series by J. de St. Igny, especially in Lc Jardin 

 de la Noblesse, and to Jacques Callot's La jXoblesse,-* 

 which depict military and court dress with less carica- 

 ture than most of this master's work. Among the 

 engravings of Abraham Bosse, there is a series (fig. 1 1) 

 relating to the sumptuary law of 1633 by which 

 Louis XIII, at the instigation of Cardinal Richelieu, 

 tried to curb the extravagance and simplify the dress 

 of the ladies and gentlemen of his court. This series 

 is worth mentioning as a record of the dress at this 

 period, but neither these engravings nor the better 

 known "Galerie du Palais" (fig. 12) are, strictly 

 speaking, fashion plates which provide information for 

 dressmakers or wearers of clothes." 



In England, the engravings were of a rather different 

 style. Dutch prints of allegorical subjects were in 

 vogue, and there are innumerable sets of prints of the 

 seven Ages of mankind, the five senses, the four 

 seasons, the continents, and the liberal arts, typified 

 by real and imaginary figures in all styles of dress. 

 Jean Barra's figure "Seeing" (fig. 13), with her 

 looking glass and perspective glass, accompanied by 

 the farsighted eagle, is illustrated here mainly because 

 of its explanatory quatrain mentioning fashions.-^ 



Not until the early 1640s can reliable engravings 

 of English fashions be found. Most of Wenceslas 

 Hollar's 1639 series, "Ornatus Muliebris Anglicanus, 

 or, the severall habits of English women from the 

 Nobilitie to the Country woman, as they are in these 

 times," is slightly suspect as being imaginary or at 

 best idealized, though the lady in waiting (Hollar's 

 no. 23) and the countr>- woman (Hollar's no. 26) 

 walking on her iron-ring pattens may be portraits. 

 Hollar's "Theatrum Mulierum or Aula Veneris" of 

 1644 has a much stronger claim to represent the 

 fashions of London, although some of the European 

 women may be in the traditional clothes of their 

 cities and states. The full-length female figures of 

 the seasons are really costume portraits set against 

 London backgrounds-^ (fig. 14), and, although charm- 



'* C. LE Bl.\nc, Mantii'l de l' amateur des eslampes (1854) no 

 549-560. 



2i For examples, see .\. Blum, Voeuire grave de Abraham Bosse 

 (1924), nos. 957-961 ; the plate "Ponipe funebre de la Mode," 

 by A. Blum (in Les Modes au XVIl'<" sikle. 1927), p. 21; and 

 F. P. Wilson, "Funeral obsequies of Sir .\ll-in-ne\v-fashions" 

 (in Shakespeare Survey, 1958), p. 98. 



28 J. L. Nevinson, "Fashion Plates and Fashion, 1625-35," 

 Apollo (1950) vol. 51, pp. 138-140. 



2' GusTAVE Parthev, Kurzes Verzeichniss der Hollarschen 

 Kupferslicken (1853), nos. 606-609. 



^ if^nerv 'Jasmons 



the ^.^v:J.^ 



Jpie to vmjKi 



^r ftt' r^r.f;/ 



tiu" emu > 



Figure 13. — .Seeing, from a set of the Fine Senses. 

 Engraving by Jean Barra, ca. 1625. {Courtesy oj 

 .\ational Portrait Gallery, London.) 



ing in themselves, they are not true fashion plates, 

 while those of the series of women's heads in circles, 

 which are not copied from other work, are simply 

 portraits ^^ of ladies whom Hollar actually knew in 

 London. Notwithstanding his engravings of muffs,-' 

 it is most unlikely that Hollar had any connection 

 with either a fashion hou.se or a milliner's shop in 

 London. 



During the Commonwealth period (1648-60) 

 Hollar's work depicting costumes faded out, but the 

 diarist Jolin Evelyn was wTiting a little book, Tyrannus, 

 or the Mode, which was published in 1661.™ In it he 



2S GusTAvE Partiiev, Kurzes Verzeichniss der Hollarschen 

 Kupferstichen i\853), nos. 1908-12, 1930-33. 



29 Parthev, ibid., nos. 1946-51. 



30 John Evelyn, Tyranmis or the .Mode (1661). Facsimile 

 reprint with introduction by J. L. Nevinson (Oxford: Luttrell 

 Society, 1951), no. U. 



PAPER fiO: ORIOIN AND EARLY HISTORY OK THE FASHION PL.\TE 



77 



