Among the drawings and designs of this period which were not made for the purpose of reproduction in painted glass, the set representing the costumes worn by contemporary Basel ladies is among the most important. There are six of these,[348] or rather five, for the sixth, which represents a _fille de joie_ with large hat and low-cut dress (Pl. 51 (1)), is not regarded as a work from Holbein’s own hand. They are pen and wash drawings, and, with the exception of the last one, were in Amerbach’s possession. It is not easy to say exactly for what purpose they were made, but certainly not for painted glass. It has been suggested that they represent designs for dresses invented by Holbein—sixteenth-century fashion plates—which the ladies of Basel afterwards used as models; but a simpler and more natural explanation is that they are merely studies of costume made from time to time when Holbein saw a dress which pleased him, which would be of use in the carrying out of his wall-paintings, or his book illustrations, or in other ways. They appear to have been done during his first years in Basel. Perhaps the earliest of them is the one of the noble lady with a hat covered with ostrich feathers,[349] and her hair confined in a silken net at the back, who wears a dress of watered silk with a train, which she holds up with her right hand. This, according to Dr. Ganz, is of about the date 1516 or 1517, and in draughtsmanship and handling has much in common with the portrait of Meyer’s wife, Dorothea, while the embroidery and tassel-work of the bodice in both the drawing and the picture are very similar. The drawing of the Basel “Edeldame” (Pl. 52),[350] taken almost from the back, which is the most beautiful of the series, is certainly a little later in date, and shows great freedom, delicacy, and truth of draughtsmanship. Her hair is covered with a semi-transparent striped gauze cap, of a similar pattern to the one in the portrait of the burgomaster’s wife. The neck and shoulders are covered with fine white lawn, and the plain dress is only relieved by deep bands of velvet, and a girdle from which is suspended a metal case of chased work for a measure or “house-wife” at the end of a long band. At least two ladies appear to have served Holbein as a model for these studies. The “Frau Burgermeister,” Dorothea Kannengiesser, posed as the Baseler “Burgersfrau,”[351] and perhaps as the “Edeldame,” while for the remaining studies, among them that of the patrician dame with the feather hat already described, a model of a more lovely and a more wanton appearance served him, who later on was painted by him as “Laïs Corinthiaca.” In a second drawing of the set the same lady appears in a gown with puffed sleeves and deep velvet bands, embroidered petticoat and head-dress, and wearing a number of ornaments round her neck, including an openwork collar with the word “AMOR.”[352] The same model appears in a third drawing (Pl. 51 (2)), in which she poses as a