English Brothers: Eton Collars (1900s)


Figure 1.--This English boy wears an emaculate white Eton collar for his portrait. The image is undated, but an E-Bay seller guesses that it was taken about 1910. The boy looks to be about 13 years old. Note the large tie knot and vest. In the portrait, his shirt waist seems to show over his Eton collar, this should not have been how the Eton collar was worn and is a little surprising in a formal portrait. A British expert on Eton collars wonders if this portrait was not taken earlier, he reports, "This style of necktie with the large, loosely tied knot, is more late 19th century in my experience. By 1915 ties were much more neatly (and tightly) knotted just as collars were more stiffly starched." Image used courtesy of the MD Collection.

A HBC reader has provided us images from an English family with two brothers. Unfortunately we do not know who the boys are, except that one of the boys became a judge. We also do not know when the available portraits were taken. The location is also not identified. We can, however, make some assessments based on an examination of the photographs.

Chronology

We are unsur about the dates which the vailable imges were taken. The E-bay seller estimated that the image here (figure 1) was taken about 1915. A British expert on Eton collars wonders if this portrait was not taken earlier, he reports, "This style of necktie with the large, loosely tied knot, is more late 19th century in my experience. By 1915 ties were much more neatly (and tightly) knotted just as collars were more stiffly starched." HBC is still assessing the date of these portraits. All we can say now is that the images look to be pre-1915 photographs. The quality of the photography looks to be more early 20th century than late-19th century photography, but we are still assesing the images.

Family

An E-bay buyer tells HBC that he has previously purchased two cabinet cards of this boy and his younger brother from this seller. While the family is unidentifed, the available photographs tell us a good bit about the family. Clearly the boys came from an affluent family.

Location

None of them have any identifying marks--not even of the studio where they were taken.

Family

The E-bay seller tells us that "The photos of the boy are from a family album that I purchased about 6 months ago. The family is not identified. There were many wonderful photos of two bothers, some with there father and mother, taken throughout there lives." The boys look to be realtively close in age, perhaps separated by 2-3 years.

Older Boy

The older boy went on to become a judge in England. The judge was apparently some one of great prominence, but I do not know his identity."

Conventions

The two boys were commonly dressed alike. We note in some images ther are mall differences. We are not sure whether these diffeences are random are rpresent age appropriate dressing convnions.


Figure 2.--This English boy was photographed about 1910. He wears a tie with his Eton collar and a vest. He looks to be about 10 years old. We believe that this photograph ws taken about the same time as that of his brother. Image used courtesy of the MD Collection.

Clothing

While we know realitively little about these boys, the available images do provide us considerable information about how they were dressed.

Velvet suits

The best of these photos were Cabinet Cards, from a series with the boys seated in front of a beautiful Japanese screen serving tea. They were dressed in delightful velvet suits with lace collars. The age of the boys at the time were approx. 4 and 6 years old.

Sailor suits

The boys a few year before these portraits were taken wore immaculate white kneepants sailor suits. They are all-white suits, except for the "V" collar which has stripped and colored trim--presumably white. The suits Both boys wear wide brimmed sailor hats. There are only three major differences in the outfits worn by the two boys. One, the older boy wars a slightly smaller wide-brimmed sailor hat. Two, the younger brother wears three-quarter white socks with strap shoes. The older brother wears long dark stockings, but with the same strap shoes. We believe that this was not just a random choice. Rather we believe that short white socks were considered more appropriate for younger boys and long dark stockings for older boys. Three, the younger boy's sailor suit appear to have colored wrist cuffs.

Eton collars

The boys in the portraits both wear Eton collars. I'm not sure if this is their school uniform or just their best suit. Given that the boys clearly came from an affluent family, it is very likely that they attended a public (exclusive private) school which had a school uniform. Perhaps some of our British readers may even be able to determine the school. This may be difficult, however, as many schools had somewhat similar uniforms.

Ties

We note that the only significant difference in the boys' clothes on this page is that the younger boy wears a thinner tie, not very carefully arranged. We agree with our British reader that the tie is probably the most useul element of these photographs in dating the images. Another portrait of the two together show them wearing identcal ties.

Vest (Waistcoats)

Note that the boys both wear similar vests (waistcoats to our British readers) in the portraits on this page. The vests here look to be the same color as the jackets.

Suits

We only see a little of the boys' suits here, just the top of their jckets. The jackets looks to be a solid color with very large lapels. Another portrait shows the boys wearing identical suits looking very much like a school uniform. The jackets seem to be black and the trousers look to be grey. Another ortrait of the boys taken together shows them wearing the exact same outfit, this ime with a floer in their lapel. Boys wearing the same suits at this age does give the impresion of a school uniform.

Portrait

The portraits here are little surprising in that the collars an ties are not as well adjusted as one would think would be expected in a formal portrait.







HBC






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Created: April 11, 2002
Last updated: April 12, 2002