Figure 1.--This postcard was reportedly made in Germany, but we do not know the company or date. We would date it to the 1920s. It was not postally used. Various versions of the card use different colors, showing that there is no relationship between the colors of the boy's clothes and the colors imagnitavely painted in. Click on the image to see one of the many variations.

The question is, how accuate are the colors. HBC believes that they were not very accurate at all. While a great deal of useful information can be gleaned from these postcards, we do not believe that realiable information on the the color of the outfits boys wore is among the information that can be used. There are several factors which lead us to the conclusion that these cards did not have accurate color depictions.

Variations

We know this not only because many cards had unrealistic colors, but also we have the same or similar card painted in different colors. Some of these cards were colorized in great volume. Especially if the child was photographed in white garments, the card painter could apply virtually any color.

Lack of Knowledge

The person or firm doing the coloring probably has no idea what the boy was actually wearing. As he or she was not in the photographic studio, they had no way of knowing the actual color of the children's outfits.

Specific Colors

Color was very appealing to early 20th century postcard purchasers. The colors on many cards appear to have colorized to attract the eye of potential customers rather than to accuartely record the boy's outfit. This presumably why some cards are done in bright improbale colors. We think yhat very bright colors like orange were not likely and we do not see that color mentioned in catalogs. Yellow also seems an unlikely color, except for younger boys. Here we are not nearly as certain as we are with orange. Red was a color that a boy might wear. We do not think, however, that it was as common as used in these post cards. Another color we note being used in these potcards is pink. Now we have seen pink being used in the 19th century. We even note pink sailor suits. We think that modern gender conventions began to harden imn the early 20th century. Thus we do not think pinj would have been very xcommon for boys.

Color Choice

HBC is just speculating at this time, but would like to know more about how the various colors appearing on these cards were selected. Was it up to the artist, or was he or she given instructions by the postcard company. We have not yet been able to d=find informstion on just how these podstcard coloring operations were run.

Navigate the Boys' Historical Clothing Web Site:
[Sailor suits] [Sailor hats] [Buster Brown suits]
[Eton suits] [Rompers] [Tunics] [Smocks] [Pinafores]

Created: November 2, 2001
Last updated: 7:56 PM 7/17/2008