Figure 1.--This American boy wears ringlet curls and a hairbow with a tunic. The image is undated, but HBC believes that it was taken in the late 1890s.
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Figure 1.--This American boy wears ringlet curls and a hairbow with a tunic. The image is undated, but HBC believes that it was taken in the late 1890s. |
Tunic suits became a popular outfit for boys around the turn of the century. Often they were a transition from dresses to more boyish suits like sailor suits. Mothers did not always follow the accepted pattern. As tunics were a transitional garment, it is very common to find portraits of boys wearing tunics in both ringlets and short hair.
This American boy wears ringlet curls and a hairbow with a tunic. The image is undated, but HBC believes that it was taken in the late 1890s. Strangely it looks like this boy was photographed with ringlets and a tunic suit and short hair and a dress. This is, however, unlikely. Probably the second outfit is also a tunic suit, but the detail of the outfit is washed out. It is definitely a different harment though, note the different sleeve lengrth. Notably the boy no longer wears a bow after his curls were cut. His high-top shoes and dark long stockings seem to be the same. One HBC reader believes that the boy looks a lot less unhappy with his hair short than when he had ringlets and bows. Another comments, "The hanging ivy and the urn are probably photo studio props and so would remain unchanged no matter what the interval between the two pictures. It does look like before and after shots, though." HBC believes that the ivy and urn definitely are studio props, but believes that the leaves would not hang so similarly if there was a long interval between photographs. A HBC reader asks, "Do you think the picture is the same day before and after the haircut?" HBC is not sure of the precise interval. However, we belive that the interval was very short. It might have been only a day or so, unlikely more than just a few days.
Figure 2.--This image shows the same boy after his curls were cut. HBC believes that this portrait was taken very soon after the first image. (Note how the hanging ivy has not changes.) |
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