In a thread regarding the theme of painting nobles etc as obese, this painting by bernardo bellotto was linked to show the carriage tilting http://uploads7.wikiart.org/images/bernardo-bellotto/new-market-square-in-dresden-from-the-jüdenhof.jpg
To the right of the carriage there seems to be a boy of about 10 or so walking with what are presumably his parents wearing a powdered wig and sword.
What age did that sort of dress become the norm? did it signify that they were a man or only that they were noble/wealthy (I'm not sure of the exact class divivdes at this time) and do we have examples of these childsized swords today? What is the smallest, if so?
I can't speak to Dresden specifically, but I do have information about later 18th century France which is likely to be applicable broadly.
L'Art de la Lingère, by Garsault (1771), goes into great detail on the specifics of infant and children's clothing, because these items were largely made at the time by lingères (women who sewed linen and cotton garments: basically underclothes, caps, ecclesiastical vestments, children's clothes, and the baby's layette) whose jobs he was describing.
The first great shift in children's clothing came at three years old. Up until that point, boys and girls would both wear a diaper, a shift, and a loose gown; then they switched to more fitted gowns. (There's not enough context to understand exactly what is meant by the terms Garsault uses, but they are different words - jacquette for girls and fourreau for boys.) The boys would then change at four or five into breeches and all the other adult garments, which would include a wig and sword if he was of the class that wore those. Chardin's Boy with a Top looks about six, and he's wearing a wig as well as an adult-styled coat and waistcoat.
