Crippled child with loyal pet retriever. Melbourne, circa 1890.

Albumen print photograph, cabinet card format, 166 x 109 mm (mount); recto of mount with wet stamp of ‘Burman’s Portrait Rooms’; verso blank; print and mount are in excellent condition.

The photographer is likely to be either F. C. Burman or Arthur W. Burman, both of whom operated separate studios in the Fitzroy area around this time; but the portrait might also have been taken at the Chapel Street, Prahran branch of Burman’s, which was managed by Mrs Annie Johnson. It seems like the young child – we think he’s a boy – may have had rickets or polio.