Figure 1.--This portrait shows Alan in May 1866. A 1866 portrait shows Alan in a plain dark suit, small white collar, knickers, long stockings an strap shoes. He would have been 4 years old. His hair is done just the same as when he was a baby and later as a young teenager. He appears to be looking at the pictures in a book, perhaps a family photograph albumn. Image coutesy of the MD collection.

While we have no written information about the family and do not even know the family (last) name, the many different images offer a wonderful glimpse into the clothing worn by affluent English children during this period. When very young the boys wore knickers. They seemed to have been breached at about age 3-4 years. Although close in age, the boys do not appear to have been dressed identically. Several portraits were taken at about the same time. They show the boys wearing similar, but not identical outfits. The boys when younger wore dresses and knicker velvet suits. We see no evidence, however, of the fancy Fauntleroy style that was becoming popular in the 0s even bfore the publication of Mr. Burnette's book. We suspect that the fact that the boys were born in the 1860s was a factor here. There are some notable observations about the boys' clothing. We do not yet see any indication of large stiff Eton collars. Had these portraits been taken in the 1880s and especially the 1890s, the boys almost sure would have been wearingEton collars. Another interesting observation is that their mother has not used itejms like lace collars and floppy bows to destinguish the age differeces of the children. Also the mother has generally chosen rather plain clothes with out embelishmnts. Also we notice no indication of sailor fashions for either the boys or girls. Like Eton collars, had these portrits been taken in the 80s or 90s, almost certainly ome of the children would have worn some sailor styled outfits.

Image

Alan here is looking at an album but not the CDV albumn that we are viewing on these pages. The one here looks like a scrap book or an inexpensive album that photos have been pasted into, hence the curly pages. Better quality albums would have thicker pages - almost as thick as a CDV or Cabinet card. The other, later English album that I mentioned is of a very high quality.