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Collar-buttoning suits were done in many different styles. The popularity of te different styles over time. Some of these colar buttoning jackets had military syling, especially during the mid-19th century. We see large numbers of these jackets in the 1840s sand 50s, before the Civil War. They were usually dark jackets, probsably navy blue. A good example is an unidentified Connecticut boy about 1865. Elements of Norfolk styling appeared in the 1870s, including vertical vents and belts. Some were done as Fauntleroy suits in the late-19th century. A good example of these collar buttoning suits is an unidentified American boy about 1870. While the jackets buttoned at the collar. Some had collars in the suit material. This did not, however, prevent mothers in the 1880s adding blouse collars and floppy bows. This added more variety to the jackets than the actual styles of the jackets themselves. We also notice jackets with Norfolk styling elements. We also notice single as well as double rows of buttons to stimulate double-breasted jackets.
Cut-away jacket suits were a style popular duriung much of the time that collar-buttoning jackets were worn. Most collar-buttoning jackets buttoned all the way down and not just at the collar. The number of buttons varied. In the mid-19th century there could be quite a number of buttons. This depended in part on the age/size of the boy. We see kackets with 6-10 buttons and suspect that there were some jackets with even more buttons. Gradually over time as we reach the end of the century we see the number of buttons decline, nbut they tended to be highter than the lapel jackets as there was more of the jacket that had to be buttones. Most of these jackets had right angle sides where the two sides meet at he bottom of the jacket. The jacket the boys here are wearing is a good example (figure 1). We see some fusing of the collar-buttoning and cut-way style. Sometimes boys mightwear their cut-away open, rather like a cut-away jacket. We note a Philadelphia boy, probably in the 1860s who is a good example. We see other examples such as collar-buttioning jackets that have riounded rather than squared off bottom siides. This is the style of most cut-away jackets, but less commonly the collar-buttoning jackets. Only the collar-buttoning jackers are not cut-way to any extent for these collar-buttoning jackets. .
Double-breasted jackets like single-breasted were sack suits hich for for the most part had lapels. had lapels. We think a few may be collar-buttoning jasckets without lapels. A good example may be the jackets the boys here may be wearing. The problem is that they are decked out in good-sized floppy bows and we can't be sure if they are collar buttoning or have small, high set lapels. The high-set lapels were aopular style a we see many portraits with this style. Mixing cilar-buttoning with souble bvreastedc sylin seems to be much less common. althoughh the popularity of large floppy bows at the time makes this fifficult to assess withh any surity. We believe that we have found a few images withe collar-bittoning style. But this clearly was not a very common style. This is possible in the 1870s when the collars and nows were relatively small.
We notice many collar buttoning jackets that were rather plain jackets. Curiously even the classic Fauntleroy cut-away jacket was a very plain jacket. And the same was true with the collar-buttoning jackets used for Fauntlroy suits. And this plain styling was the most common trend for collar buttoning jackets. It was, however, noy the only approach. We so see some fancy collar-buttoning jackets with elaborate decoration such as stripes. We do not think that thiwas a hugey ppular style, but we do see some. Here the growing popularity of the sailor suit may have been a factor. Some were done with wide sleeves, a popular style at mid-century, So far most of these fancy jackets we have found come from the mid-19th century. This was primarily a period before the CDV which became popular in the 1860s. Thus the number of images was more limited than after the appearance of the CDV.
The classic Fauntleroy suit had a cut-away jacket. It was commomly buttoned at the collar, but that was the only front button. Thus we would not inclkude them as a type of collar buttoning jacket. We also see boys by the 1890s wearing collasr-buttoning jackets with Fautnelroy collars and sometimes cuffs. These jackets buttoned at the collar and had buttons all the way down. We are not sure about the collars afixed to these jackets. Some clkarly had collars in the suit material. This did not, however, prevent mothers in the 1880s adding blouse collars and floppy bows. This added more variety to the jackets than the actual styles of the jackets themselves. And as the Faumntleroy collar covered up the collar aea, we often do not know what kinbd of collar the jackets came with.
Some of these colar buttoning jackets had military syling, especially during the mid-19th century. They look like mid-19th century military uniform jsckets. We see large numbers of these jackets in the 1840s sand 50s, before the Civil War. We are not entirely sure about the chronoogy. We have no information on the 1830s at this time. We think they were poopular in the 1840s. We can not yet, however, substsantiate this. Here we have a problem because so many Daguerreotypes were not dated. A good example James Wilson. We are not sure if Jamnes and his sister were photgraphed in the 1840s sand 50s. This we can not easily destinguish between 1840s and 50s dags. We do know these jackets were popular in the 1850s and we also see them in the early 60s. They were usually dark jackets, probsably navy blue. Wenote oter colors, but navy blue were by far the most common. They were done with large numbers of buttons, commonly brass buttons. Brass buttos were not salways used, but they were popular. The destintgive row of brass buttons is the most destinctive feaature of these suits. The actual number varied. Besides the buttons, the jckets were very plain. A good example is an unidentified Connecticut boy about 1865.
We also notice jackets with Norfolk styling elements. Norfolk styling began to become popular in the late-19th centurym beginning in the 1870s. We see quite a few jackets with various Norfolk elements. This included vertical vents and belts. Some were done as Fauntleroy suits in the late 19th century. A good example of these collar buttoning suits is an unidentified American boy about 1870.
We also notice plain jackets without any destinctive styling elements.
A major competitor to collar-buttoning jackets in the 19th century was the button-on suit. This was a suit without a jacket, but a blouse-like top that matched and buttoned on to the pants, looking something like a modern jump suit. We note one collar buttoning jacket that looks vaguely like a button-on suit. Only the waistband hiding the buttons has been relaced by a belt. This was a rather unusual suit style. It was something we have not noted before, but we do have this example. It was an undated tin-type which looks like it was taken in the 1870s. This was a period in which the button-on suits wre especially popular. We at first thought this was a button-on suit, but the belt and length of the top means that it has to be a collar-buttoning jacket.
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