Figure 1.--The boy in this studio portait is unidentified and undated. He looks to be about 5 years old. He wears a tunic suit with short pantsm knee socks, and colored strap shoes. Note the emroidery work at the collar. We would guess the portariat was taken in the early-1920s. While the portait is undated. It is a cabinet card (13.5 x 8.5 cm), but note the studio imprint, something we see in thevfinal years of cabinent cards. The style of the portrait, the format, and the clothes suggest the 1920s to us. The studio was Sydenham.

We see very few English boys wearing tunic suits by the 1920s. The fashiin had clearly gone out of style. We do see some, but not very many, they appear to be mostly boys from well-to-do, fashionable families. One of the last tunic suits we note in England is the white suit worn by Adrian Gerald Foley in 1923-26. We see him wearing both bloomer knickers as a yonger boy and and short pants when he was little older. Notably th only exampls wevhave found are studio portaits and no family snapshots wjich of course are a much greater indicator of widespread prevalence.

Created: 7:15 AM 11/24/2019
Last updated: 7:15 AM 11/24/2019