Ladies...Lets talk antique nappies.

Now I know that's somewhat sexist to assume only ladies know about
nappies but lets face it when it comes to cleaning up the unmentionables
in the nappy, husbands quite often suddenly discover the lawn needs mowing at midnight etc.
Anyway got this curved glass framed image of a baby something or other (he/she/it) and I figure the only clues as to age are the frame construction and the kids nappy. At first I thought the nappy had an elastic hem but I think this is pre-elastic and the hem is just a frilly one. The frame is constructed of eight pieces of wood and appears to have stuck on adornments that might be plaster but not sure. The top of the kids head seems to have had some ugly restoration at some stage. I would love this to be pre 1901 but proving it is difficult.
It is 63cm wide and 43cm high with the tinted (?) photo?/print? 50.5cm wide
and 30cm high.

Any ideas as to dating?

Cheers
Stephen

 

Gals may not like the clean up any better'n we do.......but it's all the powdering, and tickling, and smooching and snuggling and baby talk that comes after........they thrive on it !

 

My first impression is that the baby is wearing rubber pants over his/her diaper.

The original rubber pants (invented in 1910) were made of gathered rubber and were not heavily elasticized like later varieties. Those early rubber pants actually were rather loose-fitting.

To me, that's what it looks like this baby is wearing.

 

Turning my brain's subconscious search engine on. Much slower than Google, but sometimes finds stuff haunting some cubbyhole inaccessible to intentional efforts to remember. Feel I know more about this sort of thing than I can state right now. My mother got interested in old chromolithographs, starting with antique valentines, but eventually got interested in paper ephemera more generally & prints to some degree. Among her things were some framed baby images of this sort. I think popular as nursery decor at one time. 20s? 30s?

Meanwhile, think the legs holes are gathered by elastic, creating the ruffled look, but that what you are seeing is little panties meant to cover the nappy, not the nappy itself. Child could be wearing a little summer sun dress, the lace edged bib front rumpled down. Less sure about this.

My mother's things are something like this:



Of course, the baby & the frame are not necessarily the same age.

 

I would put the frame in the 1920s -30s.

 

I realized that where I placed that remark made it ambiguous. I was pointing out that Stephen may not be able to date the frame by the print or vice versa, as they may not have originated at the same time. The baby prints my mother collected also had frames something like the one above. I think what she was collecting may have been the printed (painted?) very light weight metal frames & that both prints & frames were from the same time.

 

Methinks it's a tinted photograph showing baby in rubber pants, and that the frame may be older. Bronwen's mother and I collected much the same sort of thing. Had lots of those sleeping babies,

(Oh, and a wonderful old print by Charles Twelvetrees!)

 

My first impression was that the panties were part of a set with the little dress or whatever it is. This is a formal (yes, maybe photography studio) portrait, so s/he would be wearing baby best. In looking again at the enlarged pic, the leg holes look a bit gathered/ruched, but not tight around the leg. Hard to be sure, looks to me as though the edge of the leg hole & the edge of what I have been calling the bib are finished the same way. Could be a bit of diaper showing past the the leg hole on the back of the thigh?

Stephen's real concern is the age of the frame. I'm not so sure the picture has anything reliable to say about it. See the eye screws for the picture wire have been replaced, so any clue there gone. The wire itself looks different from what I see now. The card used to back the picture may offer info. Ditto with the little nails. And of course the shape & decoration. Stephen, think you have the wrong eyes looking at this. You need to post it in a way that will get notice from the folks who know hardware, woodworking & picture frames. It was a really interesting idea to consider the nappies as a clue to age of the frame, not getting us anywhere though. The other thing is the baby clothes. We can't see much, those who know more about apparel may still be able to make something of them.

 

What a wonderful name. Not familiar with him. BTW, do you know anyone who would want to by old valentines in bulk?

 

Agree with Bronwen, you need the frame dated.
The baby looks like a boy to me, but that has nothing to do with the question.

 

Frame is 20s-30s.

 

This is a similar type photo in a similar type frame. It's my dad and would be from the mid 1920s.

I did just want to comment on the women and nappies thing. Both of my daughters that have babies have been full time working moms and it's the dads who are staying home with the babies. (though the dads work part time or have been in night school) So the dads are all too familiar with nappies

 

great photo....& he's adorable !!!

 

Funny how you don't think of your parents as children. All grown up (when I knew him) he was a handsome devil and as kind and gentle of a soul as you could have imagined. I've always liked this photo.

 

I have reached some conclusions about this item.
I'm thinking someone has restored a tinted photo and put it on a new backing board and cut that to fit this frame. It may have been the original photo that went with this frame but we will never know and the frame is likely 1920s or earlier and that's pretty much all we'll get out of it.
Thanks for the help and opinions gang.
Cheers
Stephen