James Gillray after ‘an Amateur’
Progress of the Toilet, – The Stays -Plate 1
London, H. Humphrey Feb. 26th 1810
Etching
Original hand-colouring
285x220mm
£680
One of a set with the same signature and imprint, see Nos. 11609, 11610. A young woman stands in profile to the left, at a dressing-table, while a buxom ladies’ maid laces a pair of long stays. She wears a boudoir cap tied under the chin, and holds a flat ruler-shaped stick under the stays in front to regulate the operation. The stays fit closely over a pair of plain knickerbockers, cf. No. 9608. The dressing-room is luxuriously furnished. The dressing-table is draped in muslin and has a swing-mirror. On it are toilet-articles, bottles (two inscribed ‘Milk of Roses’ and ‘Esprit de Lavande’), a rosary, a mask, a ticket inscribed ‘Masquerade Argyll Street’, and a lap-dog, looking at itself in the mirror. The furniture is ornamented with ormolu. A small hanging book-case with curtained glass doors hangs on the wall. A picture of a woman draped in a cloak, walking, with a landscape background, is inscribed ‘Morning’. On a console table is a Chinese vase with a bouquet of roses. Jug, basin, &c, are on the ground beside a chair on which are boxes for toilet appliances. Heavy fringed curtains cover the window (left).
