18th century framed French fashion plate #1 of an early fashion model

This is a rather wonderful coloured engraving dating from around 1780, just prior to the Revolution. It depicts a seller of fashion styles who is wearing the merchandise, in other words, this woman is an early fashion model. I wonder if she just wandered around looking fabulous or if she called out something, like ‘Want to look like me?!’. And I wonder if she ever got to keep the clothes!

The engraving itself is in excellent condition. She has been most beautifully framed with a proper mounting board, in a wooden gilt frame. I have a series of these pictures, all framed seemingly by the same framer, and one of the smaller pictures has the label on it which tells us that this was framed by the artist’s supply shop Dupré in rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré, Paris. The fact that the label says only Dupré and not Dupré et Cie (Dupré and Company) seems to indicate a date of framing between 1888 and 1919, which corresponds to my own thoughts that this was framed around 1910. Alas this one has met somewhere with an accident and the glass is broken. I will probably tape the glass down in order to protect the print underneath and stop the glas from breaking further - if the eventual buyer would like I can also remove the print from its frame but the frame itself is a properly-made affair, wooden with moulding and gilt applique. You could simply get a new piece of glass cut, it would not be difficult to remove this from its frame to replace the glass.

The frame has also got several small damages, notably in the top left corner.

The framed image measures 33x40.5; the image itself is 20.1x27cm.

Please click on the photos to open them up full-sized.

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