Oswald Williams’ Shirt Front cod invention

This is one of the Oswald Williams crazy inventions which came into the Davenport Collection via his wife Rae Warwick. The collection also contains an exercise book (illustrated) which is headed ‘Inventions and illustrated ideas for more’ in Rae Warwick’s handwriting. The book is full of some great ideas including this one. The entry makes it clear that the shirt fronts are hinged in the centre. If the front becomes dirty, all you have to do is flip over a clean one and no change of shirt is needed. It is likely that Harry Hemsley was involved in some or all of the inventions. The collection has two examples of the hinged shirt fronts. One has the initials O.W. on it and the other has a sticky label on it with the words ‘Spares for shirt front’.