Existing comment:
Heirs of the "First Families"
At early ages, children were instructed in manners and dressed as refined adults so they would know how to maintain family status and carry it into the future. Portraits served to remind them of what was expected of them as adults. Parents were concerned that their heirs not fall back into low society, form which they had distanced themselves.
The clothing and toy wagon are evidence that even children could "dress after the same modes, and behave themselves exactly as [their counterparts] in London." |