Figure 1.--This Daguerreotype portrait in a leatherette case shows an unidentified boys wearing a large black bow. The bow looks like a stock, except for the falling tails. Dags are difficult to date. We think this is from the 1850s, but Dags were also made in the 40s. This is a rare example of a large bow during the Ante-bellum period. Notice how the bow here lays down flat and does not billow out like a floppy bow. Notice the small collar.

We continue to see boys wearing mostly small collars in the 1850s, often without neckwear in the 1850s. We see some bots wearing black stocks. The neckwear when worn also tended to be small in the 1850s. This followed the general trend that the size of the nedckwear was in proportion to the size of the collars. Black was a common color for neckwear, in part because the black stock was so common with men. We see a few boys with large bows, but based on the photographic record this was unusual. The bow we note seem to be the type that lie down flat rather than the floppy bow type that kind of billow out which became so common in the 1880s. The few large boiws we see sseem more extensions of stocks than bows.

Created: 9:25 PM 3/17/2010
Last updated: 9:25 PM 3/17/2010