Figure 1.-- Here we see a cabinent portrait of an English boy named Leslie. He looks to be about 4 years old. (He may be older as he has written his name on the photogrph. Of course he could have written it sometime after the photograph was taken.) We at first thought he was wearing a dress, but on closer inspection it may be a white fancy blouse and white skirt. As both are white, it is a bit difficult to tell. The skirt seems to have box pleats. Note that he wears colored socks and not long stockings like an American boy would have worn. He has adoll, but notice that it is a male doll--perhaps a Punchand Judy doll. The studios was C. Hawker in Newbury. The portrait looks to hve been taken in the 1890s.

We rely heavily on the photographic record in building HBC. And with only a photograph it is often difficicult to make out important details. We see some outfits that seem to be a blur or mix of different skirted garments. We notice this in the 19th century before garements were all ready made outfits were sewn at home. This makes for a more diverse mix. When garments were one of a kind creations sewn in millenaries rather than readymade, there was bound to be a wide variety of creations. The creators may have mixed various styles. We are not sure just how to classify them. We woild be very inteested in any insights readers could offer.

Photograph 1

Here we see a cabinent portrait of an English boy named Leslie (figure 1). He looks to be about 4 years old. We at first thought he was wearing a dress, but on closer inspection it may be a white fancy bliuse and white skirt. As both are white, it is a bit difficult to tell. The skirt seems to have box pleats. Note that he wears colored socks and not long stockings like an American boy would have worn. He has adoll, but notice that it is a male doll--perhaps a Punchand Judy doll. The studios was C. Hawker in Newbury. The portrait looks to hve been taken in the 1890s.

Photograph 2

A good example is an unidentified boy in Stalybridge, a suburb of Manchester. His outfit could easily be classified as dress ir a kilt/skirt suit. We will post images that we are having problems classifyingh here. Hopefully HBC readers will be able to provide valuable insights.

Photograph 3

Here is another skirted garment we are unable to classify. The unidentified boy in a CDV portrait looks to be about 5 years old. The portrait is undated, but we would guess was taken in the early-1880s. He wears a sailor hat with a moderate brim. He looks to be wearing a dress with some military decoration and an undefined waist, but then we see a skirt below the dress. There would not seem to be any reason to wear a skirt with a dress. I supose you might call it a skirt or kikt suit, but we have never seen such a long jacket with a skirt suit. Another possibility is a jacketed dress, but again w do not see jacketed dresses with such along jacket. Coukd what looks to be a separate kirt actually be part of the dress. Pehaps HBC reades will provide some insights here. As was common in Europe, the noy wears socks rather than long stockings as were standard in America. The studio was J. Stringfellow in Fargate, a neighborhood of Sheffield.

Photograph 4

This cabinet card portrait shows a mother with two children. One is an infant about 1 year old. who could be a boy or girl. The older child certainly looks like a boy who seems to be about 10 years old. We are not at all sure what he is wearing. It could be a dress, but a smock or tunic is also possible. We are just not sure. While it looks like a dress, it would be unusual for a 10-year old to be wearing a dress, but we can not see any pants and at the time both knee pants and knicker were worn below the knee. It is a collared garment, but we notice a ruff at the collar and matching wrist treatment. We see front pleats, but no buttons, a very low waist, and a side sash done in the same material as the garment itself. We can not see any garment underneath. We do note dark long stockings. Props are often helpful in identifying gender. The boy is holding something, but we do not know what itis. The studio is R. Hammond in Bacup. This is a town in norhcentral England. It is the South Pennines area of Lancanshire close to the boundary with West Yorkshire.

Photograph 5

This cabinet card shows two unidentified English children with a studio prop hand drawn cart. Studios had all kinds of props parents could choose from. Carts like this were a popular play item. They cold be drawn by dogs or goats. Larger ones could be deawn by a donkey. The childre look to be about 2-6 years old. The todler wears a white dress. The older child. wears what may be a jacket, scalloped collar blouse, and matching skirt or a combination dress. It is a little difficult to tell. This is not a style we have noted to any extent, although our English archive is small compared to our English archive. The portrait is undated, but we wold guess it was taken in the 1890s. The children are not identified. We do do not know abot the toldler. The older child could be a boy but there is no way to be sure. The portrait was taken by Villiers in Newport.

Created: 1:31 AM 6/6/2012
Last updated: 6:21 AM 12/6/2017