Napoleon II: Leading Strings/Waling Reins


Figure 1.--This postcard is entitled "First Parade". It shows Napoleon surrounded by family members with his son the "King of Rome" and a parade of toy soldiers. It was published V.I. Pollak to benefit poor and homeless children in Moscow, circa 1900s-1910s. Notice the leading strings on the boy's dress.

Francois Charles Joseph Bonaparte (1811-32) is seen here as a toddler with his parents. W know that his father took a great interst in him and was delighted with te time they spent together. The image we have here, "first Parade", is a postcard. We do not know if it is a fictionalized rendeing or based on an official portrait of the day. We haveno idea who produced it an when. An official portrait by a recognized artist, of course, would mean that it would likely be a somewhat accurate rendring of a domestic scene in the imperial family. As was not uncommon among royal families of te day, the young prince is pictured with leading strings or a harness of some kind. Weare not positive just what it is or the accuracy of the historical rendering. Surely Napoleon forced to divorse Josephine because she did not profduce an heir, would have been very solicitous about the care and saftey of the son that his new Austrian wife gave him.

Postcard

Francois Charles Joseph Bonaparte (1811-32) is seen here as a toddler with his parents. W know that his father took a great interst in him and was delighted with te time they spent together. The image we have here, "first Parade", is a postcard. We do not know if it is a fictionalized rendeing or based on an official portrait of the day. We haveno idea who produced it an when. An official portrait by a recognized artist, of course, would mean that it would likely be a somewhat accurate rendring of a domestic scene in the imperial family. A French reader writes, "Unfortunatly the french history and the own destiny didn't permit at this Prince to lead our country towards still more greatness for the ' la grandeur de la France '."

Saftey Devives

As was not uncommon among royal families of te day, the young prince is pictured with leading strings or a harness of some kind. Weare not positive just what it is or the accuracy of the historical rendering. Surely Napoleon forced to divorse Josephine because she did not profduce an heir, would have been very solicitous about the care and saftey of the son that his new Austrian wife gave him.

Backgrond Information

We have developed ome backgrond informaion on both leading strings and child saftey harnesses.

Leading strings

Leading stings were commonly employed on children's dresses from the 16th to 18th Century. They were precisely what they sounded like. The strips of fabric matching or coordinated with the dress fabric that were sewn on to the dress at the shoulders. The other end fell freely down the back of the dress. Some dresses did not have leading strings sewn on directly, but they would be pinned on if the mother so desired. The "strings" were considered practical for assisting younger children and controlling rambunctious children for whom they were used rather as a lease. Practices and conventions varied for boys and girls. Eventually leading strings in popular parkance became to be used more and more as a restraining device rather than walking aids. The term "harness" gradually became more and more popular . From 1900 to 1950, parents used the term "leather baby harness" for a 1 to 5 years old and "toddler harness for children from 2 to 5 years old.

Saftey harness

HBC has very limited information on children's tethers. There is some information that they were not uncommon for extremely young children in the 18th and 19th centuries, but went out of favor in the 20th century. There may be some realtionship here to leading string oin dresses. Although not yet a major development, we seem to notice an increasing number of toddler children in the United States that are being taken to stores and trips on teathers. The children seem to be wearing a kind of nylon shoulder harness. This appears to be most common for boys, presumably because they tend to be more active.

Device Depicted

It is not immediately apparent to us if the reins shown here are being used as a walking device or as a restraining device. Clearly leading strings as realtively short attacjments to a young child's dress is not what is pictured here. It looks rather like a a double rein on a halter or harness around the shoulders and waist. We note them beingsold in France during the early 20th cetury. Marie Simon call this harness a "promenette"; it was sold at la Samaritaine, a great department store at Paris in 1907. Usully, leading strings are sewn on to the shoulders of a dress and much shorter, never more than one feet and a half. There is a similarity with leading strings in that there are double leads, on both the left and right side. The device here looks more like would be called a modern child saftey waling harness. The reins or leads here look rather long and seem prone to be entangled as it seems in the picture. This is especially the case of the double leads. Why so long, I dont know. I you look at modern harness, you will never see reins longer the height of the child because it is dangerous for him to entangled in his reins and consequently, falling down like when our shoestrings are not well knot.

The image here is one of many that show there existed in the early 19h centtury a restraining device which was used to complete a walking device. But one thing is sure. They are not ribbons or leading strings attached to the by's dress. Ribbons were not intended to be used as reins. An other thing is that during the preceeding century, the ribbons were used as SYMBOLIC restraining devices. The lisières as shown by Boucher and other artists are also leading strings. In the picture, we see a small white rope in the back very distinct from a ssh which is also depicted.

Reader Comments

For me these are less leading strings and more restraining reins or a harness. The nurse or mother seems to be telling th prince, 'Even if the emperor is opening his arms to take you you in, don't be so in a hurry'. A little tugging on the harness and the child will be stopped!






HBRC








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Created: July 25, 2003
Last updated: August 5, 2003