Figure 1.--This CDV portrait shows an unidentified father and his two young children, about 4-6 years old. There is no studio unformation. The portrait is undated. The dealer suggested the 1860s. That is certainly possible. e might guess the early-70s. The mount had rounded corners suggesting the 70s. The girks wears a low-neckline dress with pantalettes. The boy wear a ligh-color tunic suit with a narrow dark belt. Notice the striped long stockings. The outdoors shoot is interesting. You do not see that in America. It suggests to us that the father was a man of means. Interesting because it suggests tunic outfits were a moddle-/upper-class garment.

Many, but not all of the tunics we see English boys wearing were worn with belts. This was entirely an ornamental item. A belt worn over a tunic had no practical purpose, only creating a defined waist. Apparently this was important to many of the the mothers outfitting their boys. It also added a bit of a military look. We note both wide and narrow belts. It is a little difficult to see, but the boy on the previous page is wearing a dark belt. Usually the belts were chosen to contrast with the tunic. In the case here mother has chosen a dark belt with a dark tunic. We know there wasa belt because we can see the buckle--two roundels. The boy here is obbiously wearing a belt, a black belt with a ligh-colored tunic (figure 1). The belt not only varied in color, but in width. We see both narrow and wide belts. The belts we see in the mid-19th centurty seem mostly leather. We are not yet sure about the late-19th century. We see fabric belts at the turn-of-the 20th century and in the early-20th century, although tunics were not nearly as popular at the time as in the mid-9th century or in America at the time.

Created: 6:26 PM 1/19/2018
Last updated: 6:26 PM 1/19/2018