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sausage or ringlet curls United States 1850s clothing trends
Figure 1.--The unidentified American boy in this cased ambrotype portrait has beautifully coiffed ringlet curls, interesting as many boys in the 1840-50s did not have carefully combed air for portraits. He looks to be about 5 years old. The child is not identifiedm but the side part and sail boat strongly suggest a boy. Also notice the pooch. The boy wears a plaid dress with a round white ruff collar and plain white pantalettes. The dress has a fairly wide collar. Notice the white socks rather than stockings and button shoes. The dealer estimate the portrait was taken about 1855-60.
The size of the case is 2 7/8 X 2 1/2 inches.
U.S. Boys' 1850s Ringlet Curls: Clothing Trends
We see boys with ringlet curls wearing a range of different garments, basically all the differnt garments worn by younger boys. We note both skirted garment and pants or pantalettes being worn with ringlets. We have only a few images so we do not yet have a full inventory of the various garments boys wore with ringlet curls. The skirted garments include both dresses and tunics. We note one boy weaing a plaid dress with a round white ruff collar and plain white pantalettes. The dress has a fairly wide collar. Pantalttes were still very common in the 1850s. And unlike subsequent decades they are not worn with just a little showing at the dress or tunic hem. Many of the boys wear pantalettes with skirted garments. We also notice boys wearing blouses that look like dress bodices including colarless blouses and pants. Tunics seem especially prevalent in the 1850s. Many look rather like long shirts worn with a belt at the waist. The boy here is wearing a more formal tunic than wee usually see in the avalasvke portraits. We also see the cut-away jackets that were popular in the 1860s and worn to a leeser extent throughout the rest of the century. Of course as it is difficult to differentiate between portarits taken in the late-1850s and early-60s, the time line is blurred. So we are no entirely sure just when these cut-away jackets first appeared.
Skirted Garments
The skirted garments include both dresses and tunics. We note one boy weaing a plaid dress with a round white ruff collar and plain white pantalettes. The dress has a fairly wide collar. Pantalttes were still very common in the 1850s. And unlike subsequent decades they are not worn with just a little showing at the dress or tunic hem. Many of the boys wear pantalettes with skirted garments. We also notice boys wearing blouses that look like dress bodices including colarless blouses and pants. Tunics seem especially prevalent in the 1850s. Many look rather like long shirts worn with a belt at the waist. The boy here is wearing a more formal tunic than wee usually see in the avalasvke portraits.
Suits were still not very common for younger boys in the 1850s. We nelieve that this was reflection of the economy. The industrial economy had still not kicked in. The great majority of Americans still lived in rural areas with limited cash incomes. And suit jackets were difficult to sew, meaning they were usually store bought. We see a few boys wearing suit jackets. The most coimmon style was collr-buttoning jacxkets. We also see a few of the cut-away jackets that were popular in the 1860s and worn to a leeser extent throughout the rest of the century. Of course as it is difficult to differentiate between portarits taken in the late-1850s and early-60s, the time line is blurred. So we are no entirely sure just when these cut-away jackets first appeared. We see very few boys wearing ringlrts with suits in the 1850s. Not only were suits less common than they would become, but by the time boys were old enough to wear suits, most had already had their curls cut.
