fxh wrote:

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5289/534 … fb9ebb.jpg

Large clear photo:
http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5282/534 … 975e_b.jpg

NB: This photo will stand a lot of magnification/zooming on your screen.

I have been a bit obsessed  lately by leg opening* widths - is there an ideal or at least a range that works best. The current iGent fashion tends toward about 7" to 8 " from what I can see. ( I happen to think 8.5" to 10" is optimum)

But this fashion for narrow opening isn't new. I stumbled across this picture in a book and found it online.

It is a bunch of gentlemen, presumably not the lumpen, at a German Beer Stall at the Exhibition Buildings Melbourne in 1880.

I can study this for ages - I wish I knew more about the people but the first thing that struck me was the number of top hats. Then I've been looking at trousers leg openings and shoes, and facial hair etc

Some context ;

wiki wrote:

The economic boom of the Victorian gold rush peaked during the 1880s and Melbourne had become the richest city in the world[11] and the largest city after London in the British Empire.[49] Melbourne hosted two international exhibitions at the large purpose-built Exhibition Building between 1880 and 1890, spurring the construction of several prestigious hotels including the Menzies, Federal and the Grand (Windsor).

The Federal Coffee Palace; one of many temperance hotels erected in the late 19th century

During an 1885 visit, English journalist George Augustus Henry Sala coined the phrase "Marvellous Melbourne", which stuck long into the twentieth century and is still used today by Melburnians.[50] Growing building activity culminated in a "land boom" which, in 1888, reached a peak of speculative development fuelled by consumer confidence and escalating land value.[51] As a result of the boom, large commercial buildings, coffee palaces, terrace housing and palatial mansions proliferated in the city.[51] The establishment of a hydraulic facility in 1887 allowed for the local manufacture of elevators, resulting in the first construction of high-rise buildings;[52] most notably 1889's APA (The Australian) Building, the world's tallest office building upon completion and Melbourne's tallest for over half a century.[51] This period also saw the expansion of a major radial rail-based transport network.[53]

* I need not point out that these are not the same leg openings Tony is obsessed with

Shouldn't those suits have arrows on them...? 

Shooey did you check out the footwear with zoom? Is it hand stitched?

formby - ah yes the Convict Streak
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kNviFAVFvJE

Dave Warner's From the Suburbs. Appears on the Album "Mugs Game". Transcribed from the Original Vinyl.

Satirical of Australian culture, as it existed at the time (1975).

Last edited by fxh (2011-01-11 19:43:11)

fxh wrote:

eg - thats funny but I do have to say in my worldly travels I've almost never found any cheap quaffing wine as good as Oz stuff. I think we are very lucky.

Theres very little risk in walking in too any big discount grog shop and picking up a $7 - $10 cleanskin shiraz or cab-sav randomly.

I also think the big Australian red is probably an acquired taste for non Oz persons.

Oh no, don't get the wrong idea here, because I love Australian wine -- one of my all-time favourite wineries is Coldstream Hills. Wolf Blass, Penfolds, and d'Arenberg are regulars at our table.

I just grabbed the first two "ozzy" bits by Monty Python that I could remember.

The_Shooman wrote:

They all look like they are from convict stock.

I'm glad an Australian said that. My other suggestion is: hod carriers in suits.

fxh wrote:

eg - thats funny but I do have to say in my worldly travels I've almost never found any cheap quaffing wine as good as Oz stuff. I think we are very lucky.

Yes. A lot of people in many  countries pooh-pooh Australian table wines. This is a pity as many fine Australian wines appeal not only to the Australian palate but also to the cognoscenti of Great Britain, America and the United States.

From Sydney Police mugshots 1920s

Yeah - its interesting looking at what the are wearing. Knit tie, pinned collar, club collar on the right hand side bloke, pocket square second from right, they look like all single breasted suits to me with mostly high gorge and wide lapels with a variation in notches and a fish mouth kind of style. 2 " or more cuffs on second from left, and guy on right, lace up boots, all with vests all with hats. Guy on the right has the seams on the side of pants - forget the technical name.

I notice none have the "traditional" short back a side basin hair cut.

I get he feeling these guys aren't your average street crim and may well have been SP bookies or Sydney gambling den guys. Or even responsible citizens having their photo done by the cops photographer. Or even senior cops. Something about their look suggests to me it isn't a crim mug shot.

There are other photos I'll post with some more obvious "street" clothing styles.

I'm not sure meister - they neither look contrite, arrogant, defiant, resigned or under duress to me.  The two  on the right - The O'Brien Brothers as I assume, don't look to be in trouble.

The considered pose with the hats arranged just so doesn't look like a mug shot to me either. If they are I reckon they are SP bookies. With the O'Briens running the show.

This picture is one of a series of around 2500 "special photographs" taken by New South Wales Police Department photographers between 1910 and 1930. These "special photographs" were mostly taken in the cellsSpecial Photograph no. 446.

The quartet pictured were arrested over a robbery at the home of bookmaker Reginald Catton, of Todman avenue, Kensington, on 21 April 1921. The Crown did not proceed against Thomas O'Brien but the other three were convicted, a at the Central Police Station, Sydney and are, as curator Peter Doyle explains, of "men and women recently plucked from the street, often still animated by the dramas surrounding their apprehension".

Doyle suggests that, compared with the subjects of prison mug shots, "the subjects of the Special Photographs seem to have been allowed - perhaps invited - to position and compose themselves for the camera as they liked.

l've been enjoying the picture fxh.

Regards: The Shooman.