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American Little Lord Fauntleroy suits: unidentified brothers
Unidentified Brothers (United States, late-1890s)
Figure 1.--Here we see a cabinet card portrait of two unidentified brothers who look to be about 11-15 years of age. Notice how differently they are dressed. The younger boy looks to be about 11-12 years of age and wears a fancy Fauntleroy knee pants suit with a floppy bow. His older brother looks to be about 14-15 years old and wears a three-piece single breasted suit with long pants. The studio was Heath, but we cannot make out the city. The portrait is undated, but we would estimate in part because of the style of the mount, the late-1890s.
Here we see a cabinet card portrait of two unidentified brothers who look to be about 10-4 years of age. Notice how differently they are dressed. The younger boy looks to be about 11-2 years of age, perhaps even 13 years old. He wears a fancy Fauntleroy knee pants suit with a floppy bow. Note that he does not have matching wrist cuffs which were common for Fauntleroy blouses. Probably that was in part because of his age. His older brother looks to be about 14-15 years old and wears a three-piece single breasted suit with long pants. The studio was Heath, but we cannot make out the city. The portrait is undated, but we would estimate in part because of the style of the mount, the late-1890s.
A reader writes, "Notice that the chair and the background in this studio portrait is designed to connote wealth. The background looks like a palace size room. It is probably just a backdrop and the chair also has a regal look to it. To me that would work with keeping the younger boy in a Fauntleroy suit longer. The real question being was this a wealthy family or one with pretense?"
If you look at the suits, they are clearly well made and fitted. And how perfectly tied the neckwear is as well as the boys' hair perfectly combed. I think it is a safe bet that the boys came from an affluent family. Wealthy is another question. I'm not sure how much you can attribute to the backdrop and furniture, but it clearly was not a cut-rate studio.
