Figure 1.-- This Quebec boy for a studio cabinet card wears a summer, light-colored Fauntlroy suit. We have no way of knowing if he was French Canadian, but of course there was a very large French-speaking community in Quebec. The styling is virtually identical to Fauntleroy styles in the United States. The only difference we note is emroidery on the sleeve. The cabinet card is undated, but the suit and mount style looks like the 1890s to us. Without the studio information, we would never have known the portrait was taken in Canada. The studio was Newron Brookhouse in Georgeville, Quebec. Georgeville was a small largely English-speaking town.

Canada is a bi-lingual country with both English and French speaking communities. We are unsure if there were differences among the English and French community concerning the styles and wearing of Fauntleroy suits. As far as we can tell, France had relatively little influence on French Canadian fashions. Perhaps there was some limited influence through the French clerics in Catholic schools and other institutions, but for the most part we do not detect fashion differences, other than the fct that French Canadians were not as affluent as English-speaking Canadians. nd of course income level affects what parents can purchase for their children. And of course a velvet Fauntleroy suit was an expensive choice and thus less common for low-income working-class families. A problem here is that language is not readily apparent from photogrphs unless there is an inscriotion on the back. One might infer that images from Quebec are more likely to be French spekers because of the large French-speaking community there, but that can not be assumed with any surity because there are many English speakers in Quebec, actually more in the 19th century than today. We do not have a large archive of Canadian Fauntlroy portraits, but as far as we can tell, we do not detect differnces in Fauntleroy suits and popularity of Fauntleroy styling in Quenec than the rest of Canada.

Created: 12:58 PM 7/23/2015
Last updated: 12:58 PM 7/23/2015