A pen and ink and wash drawing of a tailor's shop in an ornamental frame with a cartouche. A fitting is taking place in the foreground, where the tailor, casually dressed in an elegant wrapping gown and soft fabric cap, uses a strip of paper (known as a measure) to mark the key proportions of the figure. Paper pattern pieces hang on the door, alongside measures relating to other customers, while in the workshop behind, 11 men sit cross-legged, sewing in the light of the large windows.

The sheet is a preparatory drawing for an engraving by George Bickham entitled 'The Merchant Taylors', published 29 June 1749. Another similar drawing of a peruke-maker's shop, for which there is no known related engraving, was with Lowell Libson and Johnny Yarker in 2020. They were possibly intended to form a printed series of London trades or livery companies.

Louis-Philippe Boitard was a French engraver who trained with Raymond La Fage. He worked in London, where his first dated work is given as 1733, and may have spent some time again in France between 1741 and 1743. He produced satires and book illustrations, as well as portraits.

Text partially adapted from Style and Society: Dressing the Georgians, 2023.