LORD FAUNTLEROY STYLE SIBLINGS : HARLOW : WARE, MASSACHUSETTS : CABINET CARD For Sale

The children seen in this cabinet card photograph are dressed in highly decorative outfits clearly influenced by the Little Lord Fauntleroy fashion craze of the late 1880s and 1890s. Frances Hodgson Burnett’s Little Lord Fauntleroy helped popularize boys’ velvet suits with cutaway jackets, knee pants, fancy blouses, ruffled collars, and large bows, and this portrait beautifully reflects that look. The older child at left appears to be a boy, with neatly parted hair, short pants, dark stockings, polished high-button shoes, an open-front jacket with large buttons, a ruffled white shirt, and an oversized plaid bow at the neck. The younger child at right is harder to identify with certainty and could be a younger brother or possibly a sister dressed in a similar fashion. This child wears matching short pants and dark hose, a dark jacket with bold buttons, lace-trimmed cuffs, a ruffled front shirt, and another large plaid bow. The matching costumes, serious expressions, and formal studio backdrop give the image strong visual appeal as a Victorian childhood and fashion study. The photographer is Alvin B. Harlow, also identified in some photograph archives as Alvin Braley Harlow, active in Ware, Massachusetts during the late 1880s and 1890s. The Boston Athenæum’s Massachusetts photographers listing reports that he was active between1889–1899” .and specifically notes cabinet cards stamped “Harlow Ware, Mass.” A separate historical article also identifies an Alvin B. Harlow Studio, Ware, MA photograph from the same general period. Harlow was a regional Massachusetts photographer producing cabinet-card portraits in Ware during the height of the cabinet-card era. This cabinet card is in good antique condition overall, with a clear and appealing image of the children. Note the clarity and detail. The children\'s shoe laces are clear as day. There is a small nick or chip at the lower right edge of the photograph and normal edge and corner wear to the mount. Overall, this is a very displayable cabinet card with excellent subject matter: Victorian siblings wearing Little Lord Fauntleroy-style clothing (see scans).