Figure 1.--This cabinet portrait is a tough one. All we know for sure is that the studio is Winters in Paulding, Ohio. Every thing else has to be deduced from the image. The unidentified child looks to be about 7-8 years old. He or she certainly looks to be a boy. This is not always easy to tell with younger childre. Some girls look like boys and sometimes had short hair. Both the face nd hair cut here loosk very boyish.

This cabinet portrait is a tough one. All we know for sure is that the studio is Winters in Paulding, Ohio. Every thing else has to be deduced from the image. The unidentified child looks to be about 7-8 years old. He or she certainly looks to be a boy. This is not always easy to tell with younger childre. Some girls look like boys and sometimes had short hair. Both the face nd hair cut here loosk very boyish. There are no props to provide clues. As to the date, this is also unclear. The mount type here looks like it could be the 1870s, but we are noy at all sure. The elaborate background setting suggest to us that it is not the 1860s. WE believe the studio setting could be either the 1870s or 80s. We belive the curtain suggsts the 70s. Curtains were widely used by studios in the 60s and 70s, but less so in the 80s. We are not at all positive about this and welcome reader assessments. The dress has a high collar with some kind of white collar worn under underneath. We are not sure how to describe the dress, we might call it a jacketed dress with an elaborate button front. There seems to a round pin at the throat as well as a pendant of some kind. Note the horizonttal lined front goving the appearance of a cut-away jacket. We are not sure if there is a term for this stylistic dvice. The slleves seem to be a bit short, perhaps the boy was out growing his dress. The hem line is at mid-calf. An adult women would have a hem line covering the ankles. The mid-calf length seems fairly standard for Americam girls at the time and boys wearing dresses ,ay have adiopted this convention. We do notice younger boys waring longer cut dresses and kilts. Unfortunately the portrair is not dated and We are also not sure about the chronology of this style dress, perhaps readers will have some idea. The dark long stockings suggest the 80s rather than the 70s.

Created: 5:23 AM 11/30/2012
Last updated: 8:30 AM 11/30/2012