Two men demonstrating jiu-jitsu, wearing formal attire. Photographic postcard, ca. 191-.

Middleton [Greater Manchester] : Wood Street Studio, [ca. 191-?]

1 photographic postcard ; 13.8 x 8.7 cm

Inscription on verso beginning "Tips in self defence..."

This work is untitled: the title has been supplied by the cataloguer.

The following description was provided by James Gardiner: "Ju-jitsu exponents, though they are wearing standard street clothing and not sports kit. They are dressed as a 'toff' and a 'rough', in front of the photographer's painted backdrop showing steps up to a terrace overlooking a garden (the estate of the 'toff'). Gay society was unique in that it offered the opportunity for the mixing of the social classes in an era when class differences were strictly observed. The mere fact that Oscar Wilde consorted on an social level with working-class youths was considered just as shocking by the Esatablishment as anything else he might have done with them".

One in a pair of photographs. In the first one (Wellcome Library no. 2060400i) the 'rough' manhandles the 'toff'. In the second one (Wellcome Library no. 2060398i) the 'toff' has thrown the 'rough' and has him on his back on the ground

Wellcome Collection 2060400i