Drawing, gouache

Fashion plate depicting a woman in a narrow-waisted grey and red dress with a high-necked black blouse worn beneath. The sleeves of the blouse puff out at the shoulder and are close fitting on the lower arm.
Beneath is stamped ‘ Messrs. Lewis and Allenby’.
Lewis & Allenby was a famous London silk mercers which supplied silks to Queen Victoria and other members of the royal family. They established themselves on the west side of Regent Street in the 1820s and extended to Conduit Street in the 1830s. The firm was absorbed by Dickens & Jones in the early 20th century.