Figure 1.--The Scottish boys are unidentified and the image is undated. HBC believes that it was probably taken in the 1930s. The older boy has a Balmoral cap and sporan. The younger boy does not have a sporan and wears white ankle socks and sandals. Image courtesy of the MD collection. |
The Scottish boys are unidentified and the image is undated. HBC believes that it was probably taken in the 1930s. The older boy has a Balmoral cap and sporan. The younger boy does not have a sporan and wears white ankle socks and sandals. While the image is unidentified, we came make some asessments based on the photograph itself.
The Scottish boys are unidentified. Almost certainly they are brothers. I would guess that the boys are about 4 and 7 years old. The older boy is definitely old enough to attend school. We believe these boys came from a comfortable, but not overly affluent family. They are well dressed so the family clearly is comfortable. Nore, however, that their kilts do not match. We suspect that an affluent family would have had kilts in the same family tartan.
This image is undated. HBC believes that it was probably taken in the 1930s. The late 1920s is also possible, but we believe it was taken before World War II (1939-45). The modern shoes and sosft collar shirt (rather than an Eton collar) suggest that the 1930s is more likely than the 20s. The vest (waistcoat) suggests to us that it is not a modern image.
There is no indication as to location. The portal of the family home, however, has the look of a typical middle-class attached row house in a small country town.
We are not at all sure about the occassion. The older boy might have worn a kilt to school, but we wonder about how common it was to wear Balmoral caps to school. We thought it might be Sunday morning and the boys were going to sunday school or Kirk. However if this was the case, the younger brother's more casual outfit does not look quite right. Perhaps the only occassion was to have theor picture taken. We also wonder how commonly the boys wore kilts. The older boy's kilt outfit seem clearly a dress up affair, bur the younger boy's outfit seems one he might wear every day around the house.
The older boy has a Balmoral cap and sporan as well as a tartan necktie. The younger boy does not have a sporan and wears white ankle socks and sandals. Mum has neatley tucked a hanky in to his breast pocket. Notice that the tartans are not the same for the two,
but they could be variants of the same clan. Hard to tell because it is not in color. Also, the younger boy's kilt seems small for him in comparison to the older boy's kilt. The older boy wears woolen socks with a design at the cuff of the turn over top of the sock. His shoes are tie shoes very modern looking.
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