Figure 1.--These unidentified brothers had their portrait taken at C. Bau's Studios, 24-26 Federal St. , Greenfield, Massachusetts. The boys look about 8-11 years old. While the portrait is undated, from the cabinet card mount we can tell the portrait was taken in the early-1900s, about 1900-05. This is also suggested by the relatively small floppy bow.

The age of American boys wearing ruffled collars has varied over time. This coincides with two periods in which ruffled collars were especially common, the mid-19th century and the turn-of-the 20th century (late-19th and early-20th century) We do not yet have sufficent informsation to assess age trends for the ruffled collars worn in the early-19th century. We know they were worn, but probably mostly by boys from fashionable city families. America was still very rural. We know much more about the ruffled collars worn later. We note small ruffled collars at mid-century. Often they were so small they only seem to peak above the boy's jacket at the collar. They seem to have been worn by rather young boys up to perhaps 10-years of age. This needs to be refined as we archive more images on HBC. We note much larger collars in the late-19th and very early-20th century. This was part of the Fauntleroy craze. We note a wider range of ages during this period wearing the ruffled collars. This seems to have varied from family to family. The upper limits seems to be boys about 12-13 years of age. After the 1900s, he age of boys wearing ruffled collars appeas to hsave declined sharply.

3 Years Old

We note much larger collars in the late-19th and very early-20th century. This was part of the Fauntleroy craze. We note a wider range of ages during this period wearing the ruffled collars. This seems to have varied from family to family. The upper limits seems to be boys about 12-13 years of age. Agood example is B. Curtlis Sunderland who looks about 3-4 years ols about 1900.

6 years Old

We note small ruffled collars at mid-century. Often they were so small they only seem to peak above the boy's jacket at the collar. They seem to have been worn by rather young boys up to perhaps 10-years of age.

8 Years Old

The younger brother here look about 8 years old (figure 1). He wears a large ruffled collar as part of a Fsauntleroy outfit. While the portrait is undated, from the cabinet card mount we can tell the portrait was taken in the early-1900s, about 1900-05.

10 Years Old

11 Years Old

We still see quite a number of 11 year old wearing ruffled collars during the Fauntleroy era. This varied omewht. Boys of this age rarely wore the classic Fauntleroy suit with a ruffled collar. We do see large ruffled collars worn with regular uits, often with floppy bows. We see these large white collars in the 1880s and 90s, but less so in the 1900s, al least for 11 year olds. We some times see mothers using these collars as a way of corrdinating the dress of the entire family, at least for boys up to 11 or 12 or even 13 years of age. After about 11 years of age, these rulled collars done as formal Fauntleroy blouses declined substantially in prevalence. In additiin to he white Fauntleroy blouse, we also see patterned blouses with lare cillares with some ruffled collars. The ad copy in period catalogs sometimes also reffered to these collars as Fauntleroy blouses. They were, however, less formal than the white blouses and were usually not worn with floppy bows.

12 Years Old

We note boys up to about 12-years old wearing ruffled collars with Fauntleroy-like outfits. Not all of these images are dated. We can only estimate ages for these undated images, but think we can do so within a tear vot sp of actual ages. We of course give priority to dated imagesm but to rely soley on such images wpild severly restrict our avility to illustrate the wide ramge of fashions cobered by HBC. Here we invite HNC readers to provide age assessments if they think we are off on the our age assessments. We see slightlu older boys wearing vliyses with large collars with ruffled trim. But it was rare for boys over 12 years to wear true ruffled collars and Fauntleroy suits. Boys this age are less numerous than the younger boys, but we still see some. This was more common in America than in any other country.

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Created: 12:25 AM 9/11/2009
Last updated: 5:10 PM 12/2/2015