Figure 1.--This unidentified Gernan boy wears a Fauntleroy-style outfit. He looks to be about 10-11 years old. He has a collar-buttoning jacket with short pants and simple contrasting cuffs. It is alittle difficult to tell bit the jacket seems longs and tghe sgorts are cur rather short for the 1910s. He has a small lace collar with matching wrist cuffs. His hair is done in bangs. The bangs are straight cut with a slight moldimg affect. All we know about the boy is that the portrait was done in 1911 just before World War I./i>

We are just beginning to build a chronology of German Little Lord Fauntleroy suits. This is complicated because the style was not nearly as popular in Germany as it was in America, Britain, and several other European countries. We especially note very few 19th century (1880s-90s) images in the photographic record which was the peak of the Fauntleroy craze. The image here is a rare exception. But this boy came from an obviosly wealthy family and it is a 20th century image. We note many American boys wearing Fauntleroy outfits from middle class families. They were mostly families in comfortable circumstances, but certainly not rich by any means. We do see boys from well to do German families wearing Fauntleroy suits or Fauntleroy influenced suits in the 20th century during the 1910s-30s. . These seem to be boys from wealthy families or at least the uper-middle class, perhaps influenced by Bavarian royalty. A good example are the Staufenberg boys in 1915. We notice a few examples after World War I in the 1920s and 30s, but fewer and less elaboratte outfits. And we no longer see long flowing hair.

The 19th Century

We are just beginning to build a chronology of German Little Lord Fauntleroy suits. This is complicated because the style was not nearly as popular in Germany as it was in America, Britain, and several other European countries. We especially note very few 19th century (1880s-90s) images in the photographic record which was the peak of the Fauntleroy craze. We note many American boys wearing Fauntleroy outfits from middle class families in the 19th century. They were mostly families in comfortable circumstances, but certainly not rich by any means. HBC has very few 19th century German photographic images. Thus we can not make an assessment as to how common Fauntleroy suits were in Germany, except to say we have not yet encountered a photographic portrait of a German boy wearing a classic Fauntleroy suit. A German reader who collects old photographs tells us, "For 5 years now I have been searching for old photographs (flea markets, antique markets, e-Bay, etc.) and I have never seen a German photo with a boy with long curls or a Fauntleroy suit. So it must be absolutely rare." Apparently it was not unknown. The Aller drawing on the previous page almost certainly represents an actual German boy in a Fauntleroy suit during the 1890s. Aller was known for his accurate depictions.

The 20th Century

While we do not see many German Faurntleroy suits during the heighth of the 19th century Fauntleroy Craze, we do begin to see them after the turn of the 20th century. The image here is a good example (figure 1). This boy is unidentified, but came from an obviosly wealthy family and it is a 20th century image. We do begin see boys from well to do German families wearing Fauntleroy suits or Fauntleroy influenced suits in the 20th century during the 1910s-30s. They all seem to be boys from wealthy families or at least the uper-middle class, perhaps influenced by Bavarian royalty. A good example are the Staufenberg boys in 1915. We notice a few examples after World War I in the 1920s and 30s, but fewer and less elaboratte outfits. And we no longer see long flowing hair. They wear what might be called modest Fauntleroy suits. This could include cut-away jackets and small ruffled collar. These outfits were much less elaborate than the Fauntleroy suits of the late-19th century, but we see quite a few German boys in the early-20th century wearing outfits with Fauntleroy features. This included boys dressed up for their first day of school.

Created: 11:55 PM 8/12/2013
Last updated: 1:35 PM 10/13/2019