Figure 1.--This unidentified tin-type shows two unientified brothers. The boys look to be about 3-7 years old. Tin-types are difficult to date, but this looks like the 1870s to us. The younger boy wears a kilt suit with what look like knee pants, but could be pantalettes. The older boy wears a shirt, knee pants, and Argyle patterned long stockings.

The examples of non-stripe patterned long stocking we have found are rather like the paterned knee socks worn during the 1930s, but we see a range of other patterns. This is, however, a small fraction of the patterned stockings. We see see a range of diagonal patterns (argyles), dots, and horizontal patterns. We have not yet found polka-dot stockings, but we have found stockings with dots mixed in with other patterns. We also see diagonal patterns such as argyles. These seem to be usually brighter than the horizontal patterns. we suspect that red was the dominant color, but of course have no way of knowing that becuse of the black and white photography of the day. The stockings the boy here is wearing is a good example of horiozantal patterns (figure 1). We are not sure just how to describe the pattern. They seem to be mostly muted colors.

Created: 7:55 AM 2/20/2016
Last updated: 7:55 AM 2/20/2016