Can anyone restore this photo

[scatt]

This is a photo of my great-grandfather John Scearce and his brother William outside the smithy adjacent to the Greyhound Pub, Mount Pleasant Reading.

[loord74]

my try
Rami

[purlin]

The restoration is brilliant, such detail, such skill,  well done.

[scatt]

Absolutely brilliant, thank you so much 

[loord74]

Purlin and Scatt

Thanks for nice comments 

[AlanBoyd]

This isn’t really a comment about the new version, it applies to the original as well. Is that supposed to be a horseshoe that has been thrown? I don’t know when the photo was taken but surely shutter speeds at that time would not have been capable of freezing the horseshoe like that? Is this perhaps some sort of fake, like the Cottingley Fairies?

[scatt]

Hi AllenBoyed, I would guess the photo was taken about 1880. In the original photo I thought the horseshoe was resting on something, so I tend to agree with you the horseshoe could have been added somehow.

[loord74]

A note worth noting indeed, I thought at first that the horseshoe was resting on something, but the hand movement indicates throwing and the other man's hand movement raises the thumb, it may be a photographic trick aimed at creativity, I tried to show as much detail as possible that can be seen with eye.

[mare]

This isn’t really a comment about the new version, it applies to the original as well. Is that supposed to be a horseshoe that has been thrown? I don’t know when the photo was taken but surely shutter speeds at that time would not have been capable of freezing the horseshoe like that? Is this perhaps some sort of fake, like the Cottingley Fairies?

To my eye it appears the man may be holding a handle or a bunched knot with strings to the horseshoe but with unclear image not sure about that    and the 'strings' and creases on jacket merge together. In the repaired image that hand looks double clenched with extra fingers ... again just as it is to my eye