Figure 1.--We are guessing the individuals in this CDV are brother and sister. We thought it might be a boy and his governess, but the girl looks just aittle too young. The boy wears a cut-away jacket and long trousers. The girl wears a large hooped skirt. We are not entirely sure of how this worked when she went to sit down. Notice the boater-style hat and shirt ribbon.The photographer here was Bennett who had studios in both Worcester and Malvern. The CDV is undated, but looks like the 1860s to us.

We begin to see really large numbers of portraits in the 1860s a a result of the CDV. This was a negative based process and proved enormously popular. The negative pricess permitted the prining of duplicates and prining on paper substantially reduced the cost of a photographic portrait. We see a rang of different fashions. Younger boys wore dresses. Tunics seem less popular than in the 1850s. Many boys wore suits with cut-away jackets with trousers of the same color and material. This was not very common in the 1850s. Younger boys mifgr wear bloomer knickers. Most boys wore long pants. Boys by their teen years wore mpre adult styles suits. All girls wore dresses. Large hoop shirts were popular, but younger girls tended to wear more moderately sized skirts.

Unidentified Family (1860s)

Here we see an English family with the brothers wearing the juvenile cut-away jacket suits. The English family here was from Eton or Oxford. The photographer was Hills & Saunders from Eton & Oxford. The boys wear matching suits with cut-away jackets. These suits were often worn with small white collars. Modest neckwear was optional. Notice the matching jackets and bloomer knickers. The boys here wear small little tied bows. The photograph is undated, but we would guess the 1860s.

Cambridge Family (1860s-70s)

A HBC reader has acquired a wonderful Carte de Visite album from an English fmily duing the 1860s and 70s. All the subjects are identified by Christian name and the date the photo was taken. Unfortunately, the family surname does not appear anywhere in the album. It does look like a prosprous family, but thatis all we know about it. Most of the photos were taken in Cambridge so I would assume the family resided in that area, some of the later ones (circa 1873) were taken in Brighton, possibly on vacation. This was a typical large Victorian family. he two boys were Bertie and Allan. Thre were also photos of five sisters as well: Florrie, Connie, Nellie, Grace, and Ethel.

Capper Family Album (1860s-90s)

The family photograph albumn, in propsperous families several alnums, was one of the most prized possessions of any Victorain family by the 1860s. As such surviving albumns are wonderful historical documents. A British reader informs us, "I purchased another antique photograph album a few days ago which has some interesting images within it. The album is leather bound with an embossed cover and was given to Mary Ella Capper on the 19th November 1872, there are 125 carte de visites and 16 cabinet cards in the album, mostly images of the Capper, Hardcastle, Mathews and Birt families ranging in date from 1863 to the 1890's and almost all identified and dated. I'm not certain of the connection between the Mathews family and the other families in the album but there are clear connections between the Hardcastle-Capper family and the Capper-Birt family. In particular, Mrs Eliza Capper is the sister of Mr John Hardcastle, Mary Ella Capper (the daughter of Eliza Capper) married Daniel Birt."

Unidentified Brother and Sister (1860s)

We are guessing the individuals in this CDV are brother and sister (figure 1). We thought it might be a boy and his governess, but the girl looks just aittle too young. The boy wears a cut-away jacket and long trousers. The girl wears a large hooped skirt. We are not entirely sure of how this worked when she went to sit down. Notice the boater-style hat and shirt ribbon.The photographer here was Bennett who had studios in both Worcester and Malvern. The CDV is undated, but looks like the 1860s to us. The boy has short hair and the girl ringlet curls. They look about 10-13 years old.

Unidentified English Brothers (1860s)

This CDV portrait of three brothers is undated. It looks like it was tken in the 1860s based on the pose and the style of the mount. Although the 1870s is possible, the fact that the boys are wearing plain tunics we think argues more for the 1860s. All three boys seem to be wearing tunics with small white collars and neckwear. The older boy's outfit is less clear, but we think it is also a tunic. Tunics seem to have been quite fashionavle in Britain during the 1860s. We see fewer tunics in America. We are not sure about the color of the tunics, but we would gy=uess either black or dark blue. The older boys wear light-color trousers, probably flannel trousers. The younger boy wears dark knee pants that match his tunic. One notable aspect of the portrait is the younger boy's knee pants. They are cut above the knee which was not common in the 1860s. He is holding is hat which looks like a boater with a short streamer. We are not sure what kind of headwear the older boys wore. Notice the snake belts they are wearing.

Created: 12:26 AM 1/8/2008
Last updated: 9:34 PM 8/16/2008