Figure 1.--Here we see an unidentified boy wearing an open jacket knee pants suit with a Fauntleroy blouse. Notice the circular collar and scalloped edges. He wears a small white floppy bow with a printed pattern. We can not make out what the printed figure was. A reader writes, "But for the fact that the dark bit is eliptical I would have thought they were flowers. There appeares to be a pedal arrangement surrounding each dark bit." The portrait was taken by the Western Portrait and View Co. We can tell by the mount style that the portrait was taken about 1890.

Floppy bows wre done in a variety of different patterns as well as solid colors. The patterns were quite varied. The most common patterns seem to be stripes, in some cases multi-colored stripes. Plaid patterns weee also popular. There were also some printed patterns. Here polkadots were the most common. We also see various other geometric designs as well as designs that are often difficult to make out, unles we have a high-quality scan. The printed patterns are less common with Fauntlkeroy suits than solid colored bows aor stripes and plaid. We hope to assess these and other conventions associated with pattern bows in greater detail as we develop this section of HBC. We are collecting information on the various patterns ued in floppy bows. All these patterns were mostly seen during the Fauntleroy era, royghly 1885-1905. Before and after we see some floppy bows, but generally smaller bows and plain (solid) colored bows. Unfortunately we are unable to assess the colors used in these patterened bows.

Created: 6:36 AM 3/22/2012
Last updated: 5:06 PM 3/22/2012