Pelham puppet of the March Hare from the Alice in Wonderland series of puppets. Made of jointed wood with string mechanisms and fabric costume. c. 1955

Marionette of a hare with a solid moulded wooden head (SL series). The body of the puppet is made of more crudely formed blocks of wood (where the costume covers these) and more detailed solid wooden moulded and flesh coloured painted hands. All joints can be articulated through metal joints made with hook screws on the arms and small metal plate insets on leg joints. The feet are made of small wooden cylinders and are painted white.

The hare's head is painted grey/brown with detail in red and yellow around the eyes nose and mouth. His ears are made of grey/brown felt and stick upright.
There are 5 strings on the marionette- one attached by a hook each side of the hare's face, one on each knee and one on the back. They appear to have snapped and are not attached to any controls at the top. There are drilled holes in the hands where operational strings would have been attached.

The hare's costume comprises cream and green striped trousers, a pale green jacket, a green waistcoat with cream spots and an orange bow tie.

Given by Ron Butcher

The puppet originally belonged to Dan Curtis (b.1946) who grew up in London, Ontario, Canada. Dan passed them on to the donor in 1972.

Pelhams was a hugely popular British toy making company set up in 1947 by Bob Pelham in Malborough, Wiltshire. From 1947 to the closure of the business in 1993 they made thousands of different characters and ranges of puppets for children including hand and marionette varieties.
They used simple construction methods and used materials and influences that reflected the decades in which they were made. Pelham puppets often took influence from popular fairy tales and stories for their puppets.
This particular puppet is of the March Hare, a character from the Alice's Adventures in Wonderland series. In the book, Alice meets the March Hare at the Mad Hatter's tea party. Alice comments of the Hare, ' The March Hare will be much the most interesting, and perhaps as this is May it won't be raving mad -at least not so mad as it was in March'.

B.98-2009