Marionette
Category
Toys
Date
Unknown
Materials
Wooden, velvet and silk.
Measurements
725 mm (height)
Order this imageCollection
Sudbury Hall Museum of Childhood, Derbyshire
NT 661615
Summary
One of the puppets made for and used by the ‘Lilliput Marionette Theatre’. This marionette had been identified as a character called 'Mephistopholes' and is from a play entitled 'Faust'. A marionette puppet with green skin, dressed as a Tudor gentleman, with its wooden and metal control attached. Its strings are made from strong cotton thread and are quite tangled. He has a wooden head with carved and painted facial features. He is jointed at the shoulders, elbows, wrists, waist, knees and ankles, with metal joints. One of his legs has broken off at the knee joint. His head is attached to his body by means of thick white cord threaded through two small metal loops in his head and one large one at the base of his neck. His body is made from wood with modelling material hands, which are cracked. His face and hands are painted green and he has auburn hair and a brown goatee beard, both made from mohair and glued on. He wears his pointed cap to one side of his head. It is made from red velvet with green silk on the underside of the brim, black and gold-coloured metallic braid around the brim, and a green feather stuck to the left-hand side. He wears a doublet made from red velvet, green silk and red satin with black and gold-coloured metallic braid. It has stiff black velvet-like cuffs which have lace at the wrist and gold-coloured braid at the other side, and a stiff, protruding V-shaped 'breastplate' decorated with green silk, red satin, gold-coloured braid, black braid and pearl-like beads down the front edge. The silk has a few holes and the clothes are quite dirty. At his neck is a ruff of stiff, white, net-like fabric and attached to his shoulders is a cloak made from red velvet, lined with green silk and decorated with black and gold-coloured braid, with a stiff collar which stands up. His legs are painted red and on his feet he has shoes made from green leather with metal heels and a decoration at the front made from red satin, black braid and metal sequins. Total number of items is 3.
Provenance
Donated to the Museum of Childhood by Mr E Hellawell in 1982.