Frances Stuart, Duchess of Richmond, court beauty and favourite of Charles II, is shown in Samuel Cooper's miniature wearing female riding attire consisting of a scarlet riding habit embroidered in gold and silver worn over a lilac undervest. She chose to be portrayed in the same guise in Cooper's miniature dated 1666 (Mauritshuis, The Hague). The details of the two costumes vary, however, and in the Mauritshuis version, the duchess wears an opulently plumed hat. Riding apparel was once again her choice for a portrait in the Royal Collection for which she sat to Jacob Huysmans in 1664 (405876). Samuel Pepys witnessed this event at Whitehall and commented: 'a lovely creature she in this dress seemed to be'. Her choice of riding habit was more than an expression of personal preference and seems to reflect the prevalent fashion for ladies of the court to wear riding costume as day wear, a trend described by Anthony Wood in 1665: 'Women would strived to be like men, viz: when they rode on horseback or in coaches weare plush caps like monteros, either full of ribbons or feathers, long periwigs which men used to weare, and riding coate or a red colour all bedaubed with lace which they call vests, and this habit was chiefly used by the ladies and maids of honor belonging to the Queen, brought fashion about anno 1663.' When George Vertue saw this miniature at Kensington Palace in 1734, he transcribed the date as 1663, the year of Frances Stuart's arrival at court. It must, in any event, pre-date an enamel copy dated 1665 which was formerly in the Royal Collection. Signed on the right in black relieved with white: 'SC' (monogram) and dated 166 [.] (the last figure cut).