Figure 1.--This cabinet vard portrait shows John Sharp Jr., age 3 ½ years. John wears a plaid dress with velvet trim. Notice the lacy pantalettes, dark long stockings, abd high-topshoes. He ha a narrow, upturned brim straw hat. We do nit se streamers, but this is difficult to tell. The studio won a competitin in 1888 so we would guess the portrait was taken about 1890. The studio was Davis in Richmond, Virginia. n.

This cabinet card portrait shows John Sharp Jr., age 3 ½ years. John wears a plaid dress with velvet trim. Notice the lacy pantalettes, dark long stockings, abd high-topshoes. He ha a narrow, upturned brim straw hat. We do nit se streamers, but this is difficult to tell. The studio won a competitin in 1888 so we would guess the portrait was taken about 1890. The studio was Davis in Richmond, Virginia. A reader writes, "I was wondering whether pantalets served as linings for clothing such as woolen dresses and Fauntleroy and other suits. I remember as a child preferring woolen shorts that had linings as the wool did not scratch my legs. Just a thought, I have no idea if that was part of the issue or not. Here, it was probably decorative but we do know that stockings often did not go very high up the leg until the 20th century so it may have played that role. Also on this image is the fact that the collar looks like it is not attached but was taken on and off whereas the cuffs and other decorative items were definitely attached to the dress. Maybe this was hand made by the family rather than store bought." We believe that better made garnents for younger children were lined. We know that Fauntleroy suits were cimminly lined. We believe that this was alsocommin for winter-fall dresses like this onrme and kilt suits. Our collection of vintage Fauntleroy suits (both kilt and knee pants suits) show than many if not most were lined. It is quite kilely that this was a home sewn dress. Dresses wereveasier to sew thn suits. And mothers found that their daughters were commonly more interested in clothes than their sons and more fashion concious. Our reader adds, "If you read catalogs from the period certain high quality wools were sold unlined such as certain types of flannels, and often more expensive than the lined versions. So there may be more to it than just high quality or not, though I do believe most Fauntleroy suits were lined and better made suit jackets were often lined as were better made certain type of woolen trousers (some were scratchy and others like flannel were not)."

Created: 7:39 PM 10/19/2012
Last updated: 8:04 PM 3/23/2015