Figure 1.--Here we see a brilliantly colorized Daguerreotype portrait showing a girl wearing a dress with all of the classic features of 1840s dresses. We see low necklines, short sleeves, defined waistlines, and long lengths even for younger girls. Alao notice the ringlet curls and pantalettes. We also get to see the hoop toys boys vand gir;ls played with. The portrait is undated, but we beleve it is an 1840s Dags. The dealer dated it to the 1840s. There is a note associated with the Dag which we think is the girl's name. We can not make out her frst name, but the note it reads: ???????? Dilliye Boque. Click on the image to see the note. Let us know if you can make out the first name. There is also some writing on the inside cushion.

We note low necklines, short sleeves, defined waistlines, and long lengths even for younger girls. Low dress necklines were especilly common for younger children. Pantalettes commonly covered legs below the hemline. Some dresses had short sleeves, something we do not see on boys' blouses and shirts. This seems rather strange and we do not know just how to attribute it. The low necklines is something we see in the first half of the 19th century, but not commonly in the second half. We have much more information in the dress bodicies than the skirts. This is because standing imges of children like the one here was not the standard pose for Dagerreotype portraits (figure 1). Much more common was a sitting pose by a fabric draped table. This of course is because of the low speed of Dag plates. The subjkect had ti remain moyionless, easuer to do when sitting down. Thus we often do notsee much of the girls' skirts and boys' pants.

Created: 4:43 PM 2/25/2025
Last updated: 4:43 PM 2/25/2025