Figure 1.-- This Bulgarian cabinet card shows an unidentified Bulgarian family with three children about 3-10 years of age. They look like a prosperous middle-class family. The backdrop is rather over the top. The boy wears a single-breasted, vested, long pants suit. His older sister wears a plain dress with a ruffled trimmed collar. Notice the little grl's striped stockings. The father wears a frock coat with what looks like a wing collar. Mother wers a voluminous dress. There is a dog in the portrait, but it looks rather like a china figurine. The dealer though the portrait dated to about 1885. We at first thought the 1870s, in part because of the boy's long pants and the girl's striped stockings. The ruling on the card also suggested the 1870s, but we do see ruling in early-1880s Bulgarian caninet cards. So the early-1880s seems a reasonable guess. The family was photographed in Roustchouk which was one form form of Ruse, a town in northeastern Bulgaria near the newly established Romanian border. There were different names because of the Bulgarian, German, Romanian, Russian, and Turish influences. The studio François Bauer in Roustchouk. Interestingly the lettering is not in the Cyrillic alphabet. Bauer also has a studio in nearby Schumen.

This Bulgarian cabinet card shows an unidentified Bulgarian family with three children about 3-10 years of age. They look like a prosperous middle-class family. The backdrop is rather over the top. The boy wears a single-breasted, vested, long pants suit. His older sister wears a plain dress with a ruffled trimmed collar. Notice the little grl's striped stockings. The father wears a frock coat with what looks like a wing collar. Mother wers a voluminous dress. There is a dog in the portrait, but it looks rather like a China figurine. The dealer though the portrait dated to about 1885. We would guess the 1870s, in part because of the boy's long pants and the girl's striped stockings. The ruling on the card also suggests the 1870s, but we do see ruling in early-1880s Bulgarian cabinet cards. So the early-1880s seems a reasonable guess. A factor here is the Russo-Turkish War (1878-79) was the beginning of Bulgarian independence. We are unsure if there were photographic studios in Bulgarian during the Ottoman era. If they existed, there clearly wernot very many. Note the family here has rejected all Ottoman influences. We are not sure to what extent Western clothing was worn during the Ottoman era. The family was photographed in Roustchouk which was one form form of Ruse, a town in northeastern Bulgaria near the newly established Romanian border. There were different names because of the Bulgarian, German, Romanian, Russian, and Turish influences. The studio François Bauer in Roustchouk. Interestingly the lettering is not in the Cyrillic alphabet. Bauer also has a studio in nearby Schumen. Notice that this early studio was run by a German and not a Bulgarian. Foreign photogrphers were a common pattern in the Balkans and the Ottomn Empire, primarily because the area was because of Ottoman rule so technologiclly backward.

Navigate the Boys' Historical Clothing national pages:
[Return to the Main countries page]
[Australia] [Belgium] [England] [France] [Germany] [Ireland] [Italy] [Japan] [Korea] [Mexico] [Scotland] [Spain] [United States]

Navigate the Boys' Historical Clothing Bulgarian pages:
[Return to the Main Bulgarian family page]
[Return to the Main Bulgarian page]
[Bulgarian choirs] [Bulgarian royalty] [Bulgarian youth groups]

Created: 3:43 AM 5/10/2009
Last updated: 3:43 AM 5/10/2009