1850's colored fashion plate depicting three adult men and a young boy. The two men on the right are wearing trousers with bold plaid patterns; the bare-headed gentleman in the center sports a vest with the same pattern as his trousers. The man on the left, who is talking to a boy wearing a crimson velvet jacket and grey trousers, wears white or light-colored trousers, and a white stovepipe hat. The men on the left and center are clean-shaven with prominent sideburns, and the man on the right (black stovepipe hat) sports a mustache and goatee like that of French Emperor Napoleon III.
Here's a colored fashion plate (I thought instantly of fashion plates upon reading your post). The trousers here are not quite as wild as the examples you've found, but Victorian men liked them some plaid (and not all stovepipe hats were black, either). #mensfashion #victorianfashion #1850sfashion
