Marionette
Category
Toys
Date
Unknown
Materials
Papier-mâché or composition, wood, hair, fabric and nylon
Measurements
830 mm (height)
Order this imageCollection
Sudbury Hall Museum of Childhood, Derbyshire
NT 665631
Summary
One of the puppets made for and used by the ‘Lilliput Marionette Theatre’. This marionette was not identified by former company members, however, it is probably a character from the play entitled 'The Little Mermaid'. It is a mermaid marionette, made possibly of papier-mâché or composition and wood, with jointed limbs, tail, head and hands. Her long black, possibly real, hair contains blue artificial flowers. She has moulded and painted facial details with blue eyeshadow decorated with silver sequins, blue lips and her eyes are made up of blue and silver sequins. Her tail consists of scalloped shaped overlapping layers of man made fabrics coloured green, pale blue and grey. Included within her tail are large silver coloured and green sequins. The end of her tail is a piece of shaped wood coloured green and blue. At her waist is a bunch of artificial flowers. A man made blue and green shot length of fabric is draped over her shoulder for display purposes only. Seven nylon fishing line strings are attached to the mermaid's hands, shoulders and tail. The control and original strings have been removed and are missing.
Provenance
Donated to the Museum of Childhood by Mr E Hellawell in 1982.