'Gaiters' in 'The Bonnie Fishwife'

A carte-de-visite portrait of an unidentified man dressed, according to an inscription on the album page, as the character ‘Gaiters,’ the valet of 'Mr Wildoats Heartycheer’ in a production of The Bonnie Fishwife, a ‘comedietta or farce in one act’ by Charles Selby that was first performed at The Strand Theatre in London on 20 September 1858. On that occasion the part of Gaiters was played by Johnny Clarke.

Much of the farce's action takes place in the Scottish Highlands, hence the kilt and sporran seen here. The actor playing the part also appeared in drag during the course of the farce, since the plot called for Gaiters to dress up as his master's future mother-in-law, Mrs MacFarlane, 'as hideous a virago as ever stood in the enviable relation of mother-in-law' (The Press, 25 September 1858).

Photographed by the Russell Bros & Moncrieff of the Cosmopolitan Galleries in Kingston, Jamaica.