Boy and Father - Cabinet photo

This is a very recent purchase. A little boy, wearing an oversized coat or robe, sitting on the lap of a man who I'm guessing is his father. This would date from the 1890s.

I just noticed the boy seemed to be holding a rope of some sort. Looks like it is a rope belt for the clothing he is wearing. Is that how it looks to all of you?

Also, you can see the details of the buttons in the close up.

Fig

 

A picture of Little Mortimer, the Child Ventriloquist, and his fairly lifelike dummy 'Big Daddy'

The kid wasn't all that good, but the turnabout joke kept them happy long enough for a Vaudeville turn.

One of the kid's arms is a fake, he works Big Daddy's mouth and head with his left arm into the body of the dummy.

 

Aw, Af, that is a darn cute kid! Anyway, my guess may be like a long cord tied around the child's waist. The parent would hold one end and when the child runs off, he can't get too far. Like the halters Moms used to use back in the 50s/60s.

 

Does that look to you like an edelweiss motif on the buttons?

 

Af, I love your sense of humour! I like it so much that I was inspired to spell it the British (and Canadian) way.

Fig

 

That's a good thought -- that might explain the length of it.

 

You know, it might be... I'll see if I can get even more of a cropped close up.

 

Here's a try at that...

 

I blew it up some more, and now I'm not so sure.
It looks like is little stems with leaves or flowers on them.

 

Thanks! Yes, it does look like leaves and flowers on stems.

 

In praise of ropes, halters, etc. One of my offspring only lived to adulthood due to same. She moved like a greased eel, with the speed of a night crawler, and the silence a morphined patient. And she thought EVERYone was fascinating!

This in NYC's Central Park? I don't think so!

 

Nice photo, Fig. It looks to me, too, like the cord is around his waist.

The buttons look like antique ones I've had that were metal, with the pattern either cut out or applied from the front (not sure which) and a background that's a different color. With the ones I've had, sometimes the backgrounds look like mirrors, sometimes they were black and other times a different color, sometimes they were velvet, and sometimes they looked like they were a different metal.

 

Hi Silver,
I did not need the "leash" for my son but my little sister who is the same age. I used it and endured snide remarks. As she got older she did not need it. However whenever we went into a store she would say "please hold my hands so I don't get into trouble."
I told people I raised three kids. My son, my sister 6 weeks younger and my little sister who was 7 years younger. It was easier saying they were mine then to explain about Mom's "blessings". I should explain, my Mom went through the "change" at 50 was fine until 55 when she had my sister and then nothing until 57 when she had my little sister. Enough I said "I am going to have you spayed". "Do you realize that your first Soc Sec check will pay for her first grade tuition"
greg

 

I don't think my mother used a "leash" with me, but it might have been a good idea. When I was little, we lived on a busy intersection in Brooklyn, and she said if she didn't hold my hand all the time I would have been forever running out in the street before she knew it.

 

Oh I hope this doesn't get me a "slap" from the powers that be.

Gregsglass, don't have a story to top the 55 and 57 year-old baby surprises, but it does remind me of an "almost" similar incident on my father's side of the family.

My aunt by marriage was completely taken aback when she became pregnant in her late forties, 7 years after her 3rd (and she thought "final") child.

She was complaining to the women of the family as they sat in the living room. She said "That dia****gm is just like everything else in our house -- it's worn out!"

Whereupon my maiden aunt (older sister of husband of woman who was complaining) smiled slightly and quietly said, "I don't think everything at your house is worn out."

 

Zinger!!

 

Pat, thanks for your thoughts on the buttons. And, thanks to others for their stories!

 

I was just studying the photo more, and thinking how nice it is to see a little one smiling in a photo.

Which then had me thinking, hmm, the father may have been holding onto the rope in the back to help keep the child still. That may be why we don't see the father's right hand.

 

But we do see the father's right hand - look at the second photo attachment. Just below and slightly behind the child's right arm.

I'm curious about what the child is holding. The way the cord loops up from below and disappears into his left hand certainly makes it look like the item is at the cord's end, but whatever it is seems to be much larger than the round knot on what should be the other end of the cord.

 

Oh, duh. You're right, of course, Bakers.