Figure 1.--This German CDV portrait shows three unidentified boys presumably brother about 3-8 yers old. . The portait is undted, but the mount style suggests the early-1870s. The portrit is rfully poisded and the boy are well dressed, strangely mother who so carefully dressed them did not bother to comb their hair. All of the boys have collar buttoning outfits. They all hve gleaming white collrs worn over their tops. The younger bo wear a dress don o look like a collar-buttoning suit jacket. (Kilt sdyuts were not as popuklr in Germany as in America and Britain.) The middle boy ewers a collar buttoming jacket wihdouble-breasted styling. Notice his white collar is worn over his jacket collar. The older boy's kckt buttons t thd collr, but we would dedscribe it as a vested cut-away jacket. All three boys wear white long sdtockings abnf high-top button dhoes. The white stockings help to date it to the 1860s or early-70s. The studio wa I. Hülsenherk in Minden i Mestt. Minden is a town the north-east of North Rhine-Westphalia. The toiwn extends along both sides of the River Weser. The i means on in this case on a ruver. we are not sure what is meant by Mestt. We know of no such river. Click on the image to see the German script.

Many of the tops for children often buttoned at the neck or collar. Collar-buttoning suit jackets were done in a very wide variety of styles. We see more different styles in Germany than any other country. Collar-buttoning jackets were also popular in America, but we do not see all the stlistic variations that we note in Germany, especilly in the 19th century. We see plain suits in the 19th century, but we also see many fancier styles with some done with elaborate decoration. This seems to be especially charactristic of German collar-buttoning jackets. We suspect that social-class factors were involved here. The more elaborated, decorated jackeds were more expensive and thus mostly worn by boys from afflunt families. Here we see a boy wearing a collar buttoning jacket with double-breasted styling (figure 1). Their little brother wears a dress done like a collar-buttoning jacket. By the 20th century these jackets were more standarized and plainer. The boy's jacket on the previous page in the 1930s is a good example. American collar-buttoning jackets were much plainer, based on the rather plain style of U.S. Army uniforms. The German collar buttoning jackets included both single- and double-breasted styling. Often the double breasted styling was only a double row of buttons. Modern-styled suit jackets with lapels first appeared with adults.

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Created: 1:43 PM 11/28/2021
Last updated: 1:43 PM 11/28/2021