Supervised Birching
I wish I could identify the uniform of the bearded gentleman who is supervising this bondage birching punishment:
I don’t know anything whatsoever about this photograph, except that 17 years ago I published another photo from the same set which my then-source estimated to date from 1890.
See Also:
The beard, coat and cap – even the painted-on door hinge – and the scene overall makes me think of the Russian Empire at the end of the 19th century after serfdom was abolished.
Here is a period painting, and though the button placement on the coat doesn’t match exactly, the overall style of clothes seems similar to me:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Obshchina#/media/File:KorovinS_NaMiru.jpg