1880s teens. 1/6th plate tintype. Private Collection

This is one I acquired recently and there’s everything to love here; how the boy’s frock coat with the short bowler contrasts with the young girls’ elaborate Victorian fashion with the pleats and patterns. The details are amazing too, like the lace collar of the girl in the back and the feathered derby of the one in the front (I want it). The young ladies are all wearing their neatly brushed hair down.

Also, the two front girls are sitting high on the bench; they must be wearing bustle dresses.

These four most likely were brother and sisters who were close in age, or maybe fraternal twins with siblings, or perhaps siblings with cousins. One thing’s for certain, they were all very photogenic and made a gorgeous group portrait.

Some pictures make me want to stare for ages. This is one of those. I have it framed by my computer.

Here’s a CDV of the same era with another teen boy wearing a similar short bowler I find very stylish.

Digital restoration work titled Beautiful Victorian Teen Sisters And Their Cute Brother In A Bowler by Caroline C. Ryan is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.