I'm intrigued by the contraption that the elderly gentleman is riding in this old photo. It looks like the adult equivalent of a child's pedal-car. I think maybe it might be a velocipede. He looks like he's taking it to work in the fields.
Found at Histoire de l'Oeil, where there's no apparent explanation (or source).
Or ... perhaps with that scythe, he's meant to represent Father Time or Death, and the whole thing is a metaphor for young vs. old.
ReplyDeleteHe's going to kill her for her pneumatic tyres.
ReplyDeleteEven though they don't fit his wheels.
I do like the "Father Time" analogy - certainly looks more like that than a grim reaper.
ReplyDeleteI still like the ?velocipede as such, but the image as youth/age contrast is also quite evocative.
A TinEye reverse image search yielded only one hit (http://www.elmundo.es/elmundolibro/lujos_papel.html). The only clue I can decipher is that the picture was made in France ~1860. Perhaps Titam will recognize it re source or photographer.
It looks like a Victorian bicycle. Here is an exemple. It also looks quite close to a circa 1898 Coventry Machinist's Co. adult tricycle which I found here.
ReplyDeleteIt might also be a high wheel tricycle, though it was mostly for ladies. Many mechanical innovations were originally invented for tricycles: Rack and pinion steering, the differential, and band brakes, etc.
This started puzzling me, and I investigated it little bit more. I found quite a similar looking tricycle located in the Wibaux Museum.
I'll keep looking, but for now, I don't recognize the source or photographer.
Thank you, Mlle. The more times I try to Google it, the more I am impressed by the many creations of inventive minds.
ReplyDelete