Date Cabinet Portrait Joseph Barraclough 1843_1906 Yorkshire

[Treetotal]

Maybe a donkey stone, crust of bread and drinking water for the birds.
Carol

[Handypandy]

What a wonderful background to a great clear photograph. Now I want to know why there are two stones on the sill one at each corner.   

I did wonder if they were some kind of natural 'donkey stone' ..... if you don't know what that is, then you're not as old as me......

edit: Carol beat me to it!

[Treetotal]

Yes am am old enough, I used to donkey stone the front doorstep when I was at home. when, is for me to know and you to wonder 


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donkey_stone

Carol

[cockney rebel]

I expect it is only a reflection but the shadow in the right hand window gives the impression that the right hand donkey stone went straight through the glass!
Rebel
PS I'm from the South and have never encountered the word donkey stone

[johnbarr]

Thanks for your comments, shanreagh. I confess to spending some considerable time 'cleaning' the photo to remove spots, stains, cracks and creases 

Yes, I wondered about the stones, too and admit I'd never heard of donkey stones - perhaps because most doorsteps in New Zealand were made of wood. 
I remember one of my jobs before school each day was to polish the brass front doorstep of my mother's boarding house in Wellington, late 1940s. I imagine Brasso was as popular as donkey stones in it's day. 

Thanks for the link to donkey stones, Carol.
I found another with a little more detail.
https://www.silversurfers.com/nostalgia/doing-the-step-with-a-donkey-stone/

[johnbarr]

Around the time we think this photo was taken (circa 1900) Joseph and his wife Ann were living at 11 and 12 Playground, New Farnley.
It's possible the photo was taken outside their house. The stone paving with edging looks like it could be a garden path. I suppose anyone could take a photo and get it printed onto a 'Cabinet Portrait' card?
Here is a photo of Joseph's wife Ann outside one of the Playground houses - and it looks like a pile of bricks behind her, ready for some path improvements?
And another photo from 2010 of the same houses.
John B

[shanreagh]

Thank you everybody.  Great to learn about Donkey stone. 

As John said here in NZ we mostly had wooden door steps either covered with brass, or painted just at the ends or left plain. To clean these wooden steps we used sand soap which was like a block of soap with sand in it.  You wet the steps and then rubbed the wood, round and round until a thick paste developed. After much rinsing and drying the result was a lovely clean step.  The sand soap we used has become a bit trendy (aka$$$). My sister looks on the shelves of small rural dairies and can get supplies.  I think they cleaned down kitchen unvarnished tables to same way. 

Many thanks

[johnbarr]

and the teak decks of sailing ships 

[shanreagh]

and the teak decks of sailing ships 

Aah swabbing the decks of old.