Figure 1.-- Most Dags are undated. In this case of this 1/4 plate Dag, we know when the portrait was taken. A note reads "Christmas 1852". There are no Christmassy decorations. All we know is that the four children are dressed up for a Christmas portrait. There are four children, three boys and a girl. The look to be about 4-13 years old. The younger child wears a dress, but his top curl hair styles, suggest that he is a boy. Notice the boys have hair cuts that cover their ears to varying degrees. The gender of the older children is obvious.

Most Dags are undated. In this case of this 1/4 plate Dag, we know when the portrait was taken. A note reads "Christmas 1852". There are no Christmassy decorations. All we know is that the four children are dressed up for a Christmas portrait. There are four children, three boys and a girl. The look to be about 4-13 years old. The younger child wears a dress, but his top curl hair styles, suggest that he is a boy. The boy wears pantalettes with the dress that has a short hem line. Notice that all the boys have hair cuts that cover their ears to varying degrees. The gender of the older children is obvious. The girl has a center hair part and her dress has a neck-wrapping neckline, but not as low as was common for younger children, although the younger boy's dress has a high neckline. the two older boys have small white collars. One with a cut-away jacket, vest, and checked pants. The oldest boy has a collar buttoning jacket, a common style at mid-century. One interesting aspect of this portrait is the case cover. It was leather that is badly worn. Many cased Dags were done with the much more durable fancy gutta perca covers. This can be helpful in estimating when the portraits were taken. Gutta-percha latex is a biologically inert and very durable material, kind of an early plastic. Cased Dags were initially done in leather. We know that gutta perca was first introduced to Britain (1843). People quickly found multiple uses for it. Now there were not many cased Dags done in Britain, but gutta perca was widely used for covering cased Dag union cases. But we do not know just when this began, but it is interesting that leather was still being used to some extent in 1852.

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Created: 8:58 AM 4/17/2025
Last updated: 8:59 AM 4/17/2025