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As soon as I saw this photo I knew I had to have it. I don’t know the woman or child or who the photo belonged to but maybe one day the little girl (who is now probably older than me), may find it. Then I’ll reunite her with her photo.
When I first saw it I thought it was shot against a grass verge just off a pavement on the side of a road, but it looked to me like the flowers were planted rather than wild. Then I noticed the reflection in the wheels (which I’ve very lightly coloured in the top version) and realised it’s a park.
In Wales, daffodils appear all over the place, it’s the first sign of spring, here, and it’s the country’s national flower. But is this Wales? Or England? Or some other country?
I was puzzled by the pushchair. It looks art deco by its shape and wicker has certainly been popular for a very long time, but I’m not sure that it’s 1930s as a lot of resources online seem to suggest. Rather, I think it’s late 1940s or 1950s. The wheels are a dead giveaway to that sort of period, and if you look closely you’ll see the trim round the wicker looks like plastic. Likewise the rubber covering on the handle.
I’ve seen similar pushchairs (baby buggies) online, some were made in Germany but the ones closest to this one were American, so I’m wondering if this woman and her baby were visiting friends or family in the UK.
Originally I’d decided that the wicker would be white – as a painted type, but then thought that it looked better with a slight tint. Having lived through the 1950s, I don’t recall having seen very bright whites, from that decade or the previous one, but there were certainly plenty of creams, and off-creams. Things when new were certainly bright, but not as ‘in yer face’ as they were from the mid-60s onward.
I’d wanted to give this photo a clear, bright, happy look so I deepened the contrasts and picked out the centres of the daffs in a deeper, orangey yellow.
I made the woman’s skirt brown as it gave it a nice contrast to the grass and flowers. In some photos, the clothes call for bolder colouring, bright colours, but this is bright enough in the flora.
The woman’s skin and the child’s skin are slightly different tones, but that might not show very well because of all the high colour elsewhere in the photo.
I’ve done quite a bit of ‘cheating’ in my coloured version. The purple/lilac flowers (which might be Spanish bluebells or grape hyacinths or just ‘ordinary’ hyacinths) have received a gentle blob of colour here and there (and a few rather ungentle blobs) If grape hyacinths of course those blobs should have been deep blue! Many of the daises are missing their centres. What look like pansies are yellow and might be a different type of flower in a different colour altogether, but it seemed right for this photo. Most of the distant trees are lacking additional colour in their trunks and there’s not a great variation in the foliage, but that doesn’t matter as it’s the impression that’s important here.
I added a few bits of paler, warmer green to some of the leaves on the hedge, and no, I didn’t individually colour each leaf! That said… I did colour many individual daffodils and their leaves…
Sometimes I think I must be crazy!
***
On a separate note, I’ve recently done some work for a fellow blogger, Luanne Castle, and you can see a couple of the photos I’ve coloured for her, in her post Isidore in Living Color, which is in her family history and genealogy blog, Entering the Pale. She has another genealogy and family history blog which is The Family Kalamazoo.
And – just a word about my colouring and restoration work. I’ve recently lowered my prices (which now start at £25) so if you would like one or more photos coloured, please do get in touch via my contact form.
I still need to re-write my info page but I’ll give you more information when you contact me.
You did an excellent job. I don’t recall ever seeing a stroller like that. I wonder if some detective work would ID it.
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I found one that looks similar. It says it was German made in 1940. I hope the link works.
https://www.google.com/search?safe=off&rlz=1C9BKJA_enUS590US591&hl=en-US&biw=1024&bih=653&tbm=isch&sa=1&ei=BP-6WoqBCOu7tgW196uYBw&q=vintage+baby+stroller+streamline&oq=vintage+baby+stroller+streamline&gs_l=mobile-gws-img.3…104650.107661..109138…0….149.1239.5j6……….1..mobile-gws-wiz-img…….0j0i30j0i8i30j30i10.oERGm4216%2Fc%3D#imgrc=JCOQl8WwxXW1cM:
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It just goes to Google Image search rather than a specific photo. But I think I know the one you mean as I was looking again just a day or two ago and found one made in Germany. Not sure it would have been made in 1940 though, can’t imagine that German production on ‘luxury goods’ (which this would most certainly have been) was that high during WW2! But who knows…
Unfortunately, I had a link to one that looked almost identical which I bookmarked before my pc crashed some months ago… and, of course, it was one of those I lost.
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I tried the link after I posted the comment to you and got the same result. I’m glad you saw the various examples. There were some fancy rides for babies back then.
You do make a good point about the German production in 1940.
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Thanks, Jim.
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A very cheery spring picture in the park. I’d go with a late 1940’s, early 1950’s on the time period based on the hair style of the woman and the clothing styles of both mother and child. The woman reminds me of Lauren Bacall.
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Oh, WOL! That’s who she reminds me of, too, and I couldn’t think of her name! Thank you! 🙂 And yes, I think the clothes look most like ’40s or ’50s, too.
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Colorizing looks super. I cannot help thinking the front of the buggy is on the right and the back on the left, because of the fender shapes. That means the handle is on backwards or can swivel over so it is on the left. Just conjecture as I never saw anything like this before.
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Thanks, Greg. It’s possible, I suppose, that the handle and its rods pivot but I would think that the wicker wouldn’t be strong enough for that to occur too often before it’d fall apart. It’s actually probably arranged more like a pram than a pushchair, pushchairs usually have the child facing away from the handle, and prams with the child facing the handle. Maybe I should be looking for pram.
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Val, this is really a sweet photo. Love the daffodils and the baby carriage. You did a great job on this one.
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Thanks, Yvonne. x
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Sorry about the typo (relay instead of really) which I am now seeing. Maybe you can fix it if you feel the motivation.
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Consider it done. 🙂
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Thank you, Val.
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This made me stop and look just because the child looks exactly like a photo of my wife when she was about a year old, other than the hair colour. I agree it is probably from the 1950’s – possibly even the late 1950’s or early 1960’s – it has a feel to it that I cannot quite pin down (having lived through then, too), although the mother is dressed very much as my mother did then. The bracelet, too, looks a little more recent than the 1940’s, although I pretend to no real knowledge on them.
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Yep, I can imagine seeing your wife in the little girl’s face must’ve startled you! Are you sure it isn’t her?
I was also puzzled by the bracelet which does, indeed, look more modern. Though, jewellery styles are often based on older ones, so…
The child’s hair colour probably changed as it got older, many babies have much paler hair than they end up with when they grow up. It might have been a pale brown, or a dark blond or even a red, what I chose for it was really just a guess.
Yes, my mother also wore clothes like that. Thanks, Mick.
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Oh, it’s not her (although I did entertain the idea for a split second). She had dark hair at that age, anyway. The mother does look a little like her mum, though. and there’s more than a passing resemblance to my mum, too. Odd.
It rather took me back to my childhood.
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Well, there was a fashion then that I suppose most mothers followed. She bears a certain resemblance to mine, too – and some of my other female relatives of that generation. But WOL’s comment earlier that she looks a lot like Lauren Bacall really nailed for me the 1940s (or slightly later) theme.
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Yes, I can see that resemblance.
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You’ve done a beautiful job with this… it could easily be an image from my own childhood! My first impression was ’50s in age though it could be earlier, and the flowers do look planted to me. Maybe it’s the verge in a park? It certainly screams ‘Spring!’ wherever it is.
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Thanks! Yes, I think it’s a verge in a park, I wonder where, though? Having what looks like a forest beyond it must surely limit the options.
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Fingers crossed someone will recognise it – wouldn’t that be great? 😊
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It would, indeed. 🙂
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It is such a lovely photo and what a mystery. The ladies hairstyle looks 1940s. Maybe she is American and her husband was in the forces based here during the war and that photo got waylaid along the way.
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Yes, that’s certainly a possibility. Thanks!
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This is so stunning, Val, but then I am not surprised after the beautiful work you have done for me. These flowers! And the mom and baby look about ready to jump out off the page. They look so real!
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Re the daffodils, it made me think of Wordsworth:
I wandered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o’er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.
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I’d wondered about calling the post ‘A host of golden daffodils’ but then wondered how to get ‘mum and baby’ in there! Thanks for the poem, Luanne… it adds nicely to the post.
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And they are a rather important part of the photograph!
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Absolutely! 🙂
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Thanks, Luanne. 🙂
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What a delightful image, Val. I was intrigued by the wheels on the pram, which look for all the world like the hubcaps and fenders on the late 1940’s car my parents had. Also, I wondered if the bracelet might be lucite. It was developed during WWII, and was popular for jewelry in the 1940s and 1950s. My mother had a bracelet made of linked panels like this one seems to be. If that’s what it is, it’s another bit of support for your dating.
I think your color choices for the skirt and shoes were perfect; they have that late ’40s, early ’50s vibe, too.
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That’s a thought… yes, it might be lucite. Also, it might be enamel panels. Thanks, Linda.
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This is one of my favorites. A very real moment…for me.
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Thank you! 🙂
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Excellent colouring, Val. The planting looks very ‘English’ municipal park. The coquettish smile of the mother is rather intriguing.
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Thanks, Tish. Yes, I think it’s an English park… but where, I wonder? She does have an intriguing smile, makes me wonder who took the photo.
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I’d say 1950s as it looks much like my moms old photos from back then. The stroller is quite something!
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It is quite something, isn’t it! Yes, it might be 1950s, or end of 1940s possibly. Thanks, Tina.
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Val I think you got the colouring perfectly and how much fun trying to find out the date of the photo. I too am in with those suggesting 50s to 60s. I can remember my mother dressing like this when I was a child and I have photos of me wearing a similar outfit to what you can see of the child. I wonder if the bracelet isn’t actually a watch. I think that this is a copy of a 1950 Hecker German Wicker baby stroller with a couple of modifications. https://www.facebook.com/pg/ParkAnd2nd/photos/?tab=album&album_id=826440107485865 and also here https://www.google.com.au/search?q=Hecker+wicker+baby+stroller+and+those+like+it.&rlz=1C5CHFA_enAU576AU577&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwj7vpGuo5PaAhVHVbwKHa8OBvQQsAQIKg&biw=1552&bih=1202#imgrc=Xm2e_ofHe1U9AM:
Thanks for a wonderful post that gave me the urge to stroll the net in search.
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Oh, Irene, you wonderful person! Thank you for this info and I think you’re right. And I had a further look and found these:
http://heimatkunde-schwelm.de/00Direktlinks/Rekord%20Winkelstraeter,%20Hecker/Rekord%20Winkelstraeter,%20Hecker.html
and
The 1954 model (bottom left number 1008) looks the closest except that the one in my photo doesn’t have articulated handlebar rods and the hubcaps are different, so maybe it’s an earlier or later model. Another thing about this is that it looks like it was a 2 in 1 so that with the top outer part put over it, it could become a pram, and without it, it could become a pushchair/stroller (at least, I assume that’s how the two parts would go together.)
So, the little girl in the pram/pushchair in my photo is probably about my age and – hopefully – still around. I wonder if there’s any chance at all of finding her?
Glad you enjoyed this photo, too.
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It was a really fun paper chase (done on the internet so no paper involved) and I think those that you have come up with confirm it. Yes she’d be in her sixties so could well be alive and presumably living in the country where you got the photo. Then again – are photos found whereever you find them as part of a deceased estate.
I did enjoy the photo – immensely.
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PS. I’d wondered about a watch, but can’t see a watch-face, unless it has slipped round to the other side of her wrist, and the parts of it all look about even sizes to each other.
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I had a seiko watch that looked very much like that and I imagined that I could see a black square (rectangle) in the centre of the photo that was the width of the band such as in this picture https://irenewaters19.files.wordpress.com/2018/03/screen-shot-2018-03-31-at-8-44-01-am.png
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Interesting, thanks. I’ll see if I can enlarge that part of the photo more and have another look. You could be right!
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How beautiful! It reminds me of a photo I have of my mum picking daffodils in the 1950s. I love to read about how you make your colour choices.
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That sounds lovely! Thanks, Meryl.
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Lovely piece of work on this, I was wondering if the Lloyd Loom people made push-chairs at first until the German brochure turned up!
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Thanks! Ah… Lloyd Loom… I wonder. Not for this photo but there’s a chair in a photo I want to post soon that you might be able to help identify. Yes, it does look like it should be by a furniture maker, this pushchair, doesn’t it?
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What a lovely photograph restoration. The colors are vivid and bring the woman and baby to life!
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Thank you!
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Fantastic work, and I like your choice of color – it has the perfect retro look to it. You have made this into so much more than just restoring color to an old photo, with the sleuthing and your imagination. I’m very impressed. Thank you for the follow as well, I appreciate it!
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Ah, that’s part of the enjoyment for me, all the detective work… Thanks!
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