Figure 1.-- We notice an unidentified Wellington boy who we believe was photographed during the 1870s. (The dealer thought it wa a 1880s image.) He wears a dress with a large ruffled collar. The dress looks somewhat lile a tunic, but the skirt flares out mote than is common for tunics. The detailing is somewhat similar to tunics, but we have not seen tunics with rulled collar like the boy here is wearing. We have no idea about the colors.

Boys wore dresses that were similar or identical to the omes girls wore, including dresses with low neck limes. Agood example is Godfrey Arthur Harding Rendall , an English boy that lived near Harrow. He had a low neckline dress. We believe these went out of style in the 1860s, but the fashion may have persisted into the early-70s. We notice an unidentified Wellington boy who we believe was photographed during the 1870s. (The dealer thought it wa a 1880s image.) He wears a dress with a large ruffled collar. The dress looks somewhat lile a tunic, but the skirt flares out mote than is common for tunics. The detailing is somewhat similar to tunics, but we have not seen tunics with rulled collar like the boy here is wearing. We have no idea about the colors. A reader writes, "The children appear to come from a rather affluent family. My guess is that the English had servants to make the dress for the children and because of that the boy's tunic may have had more flare or other non mass produced touches. Just a guess here, but we know from Claude that this is true for the French even through the 1930s-40s."

Created: 7:35 AM 12/9/2009
Last updated: 8:10 PM 12/10/2009