Figure 1.-This CDV shows an unidentified German boy from Mannheim. It is not dated, but looks like the 1870s to us. The boy looks to be about 8-9 years old. He wears a short-cut tunic, just a little below the waistline. It is plin tunic with little detiling. Notice the boater and streamers.

These tunics were often collarless garments, but we see some with small collars. We see them with different styles of shirt collars. The lengths are mostly short. They vary from just a little below the waist like the boy here (figure 1). We also see slightly longer tunics to about mid-thigh like the one the boy on the previous page is wearig. In most cases they are wearing long pants. This appears to have been a style particularly popular in Germany. We see relatively few American boys wearing tunics in the 1860s. A German reader writes, "The jackets [tunics] like the one here were mostly belted. I have several in my collection, but unfortunately they are not dated. We believe that this one was taken in the 1860s. Similar ones may also have been taken in the 70s." We believe a social class factor was involved here. The tunic seems to be a garment for middle- and upper-class children. We do not see working-class children wearing them. Of course the photographed record is somewhat misleading because working-class parents had fewer portrits taken, especially when CDVs first appeared in the 1860s. A CDV cost much less than a Dag or Ambro, but were still expensive for working-class parents.