Saturday, May 9, 2009

It'll cost you a bob if you want me to wear that



This is my grandfather Vernon Cornelius Atkins in lace and black velvet at his half-sister's wedding in 1895, when a shilling was worth quite a bit!

And here he is with his big brothers...

11 comments:

Shoey said...

What would he do for a quid?

tincanman said...

I used to have a friend named Bob.
He was a swimmer, but not a very good one.

AliMunday said...

Fabulous photo, TFD. I have a photo of my great aunt Annie's wedding c. 1908. My grandmother was about 23, she's sitting in the front row looking very proud because she had made all the flowery hats for the ladies (10 in the photo). Three men have top hats, one has a pork pie hat and a handle-bar moustache, but there are no children in sight. I can imagine they'd have been dressed to the nines, though!

treefrogdemon said...

AliM, the same photo has his two big brothers wearing 3-piece knickerbocker suits - I don't expect they were any more comfortable than he was.

AliMunday said...

They certainly don't look very enthusiastic! I still have a waistcoat which belonged to my great grandfather - it's quite small and I used to wear it when I was young and thought it looked cool. It's dove grey with a narrow stripe on the front, and 4 pockets. The back is cream - all hand stitched, with tiny buttons. My son wears it now, to play pirates. I never met my great grandfather but I think from the photos that he would be amused.

treefrogdemon said...

Let's see a picture of the pirate then!

saneshane said...

hey tfd..
bribing wasn't needed, we got suited and booted fine.
But it was a little bit cool in the morning so he asked for his hoodie while travelling. Then wouldn't take it off.
He wouln't let anyone but me photograph him either. So only a few grabbed shots in the wedding album.

here he is if you want to see my photo of him tucking into a chunk of bread. The waistecoat is peeping out.

treefrogdemon said...

Well, he's a cute one and no mistake.

steenbeck said...

TFD, I have a picture of my Grandfather Ernest in just such an outfit. But it's at me m & Ds. I wanted to name one of my boys Ernest (In part after Spike lee's cinematographer) but a (british) friend of ours made such scathing fun of the name I couldn't do it.

treefrogdemon said...

Must say I don't like the name Ernest much - nor Vernon, though my grandpa was an ace bloke. But my newer grandson Ellis has Redvers as one of his middle names, after my great-uncle.

tincanman said...

cute kid shane