Some Victorian Photographs
As part of this year's Christmas Annual, I thought I would
include some beautiful Victorian era photographs. In those days photography
was expensive, and a very special occasion. Children had to wear their
very best clothes, and were often portrayed in atmospheric settings, created
by standing sets in the photographer's studio. As well as being photographed
in her prettiest and most elaborate finery, a little girl of good family
might also be photographed in very artistic 'rags', her cheeks coal-smudged,
and be photographed in a Hogarthian setting as 'A London Waif', or 'The
Little East Side Angel'. Such portraiture was considered both cute and
artistic.
None of these three pictures falls into the latter category,
but they are all of great interest.
This one is very interesting...surely the child on the right
is a boy who is being kept in petticoats. Boys were dressed as girls up
to a certain age in the period prior to the Great War, but their hair was
kept long and curled as well. This child has conspicuously short hair.
He seems happy enough though.
Readers will note the backdrop, although in this case
it portrays the elegant interior of a wealthy home, rather than the poor
streets of a large city, as in the form of portraiture I mention above.
Now here is a boy who is certainly his Mummy's little darling,
in a beautiful Little Lord Fauntleroy suit, lacy collar, cuffs, and pants,
and a big bow on the front of his jacket. He is seated on rocks in the
photographer's studio, with a big straw boater by his side, and holding
a spade. The picture is meant to give the impression that he is at the
seaside.
There is no point trying to peep under her skirt to see what
scrumptious undies she is wearing, because this is only a photograph, and
was taken more than a century ago. You can see the hem of a petticoat,
and under this she would be wearing snow-white bloomers of the finest lawn
cotton, with a ruffle of lace at the legs and threaded with navy blue ribbon.
The bloomers would button onto her beribboned vest to make sure that they
didn't fall down.
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