Merchants Wife of Denmark 1626

by Thomas Jefferys

Time travel back to the peak of the Northern Renaissance through this remarkable copperplate engraving created by Thomas Jefferys. The engraving shows the elegance of the dress worn by a wife of a Danish merchant in the year 1626, under the rule of King Christian IV.

Whereas the fashion of the early seventeenth century is marked by the change from the stiff Elizabethan ruff to flowing drapery, this particular engraving has been collected by Jefferys in the 18th century as part of his effort to document the "evolution of taste."