Figure 1.--"Chatterbox" illustrations normally depicts British children. Here we see a French boy. He is wearing a smock without back buttons and a belt. Also note the wooden shoes. These shoes and a shoe shine kit suggest a working class boy. Working class British boys were rarely depicted in "Chatterbox". The smock suggests that the boy was woking after school. The illustrator wa not indicated. The illustration was from a 1908 issue. |
We have primarily used Chatterbox and other British periodicals as a ource of information on British cjildren's cloting. The illustrations in particular seem a reasonably accurate source of information on children's clothing. Here the publication primarily depicts middle-class children, not the average British child or a range of childrn of different backgrounds. White Chastterbox was primarily for and about British children, there were also some articles and illustrtions depicting children in other countries as well. We are not sure, however, as to the accuracy of these depictions. Asfar a e can tell, they seem as accurate as the depicions of British boys. his is ust a preliminay assessment as our information is sill quite limited.
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