Not currently on display at the V&A

The Admirable Crichton

Costume Design
1920 (designed)
Artist/Maker
Place of origin

In his popular play, The Admirable Crichton (1902), J.M. Barrie looked at the British class system through the medium of comic fantasy. An Earl, his family, friends and servants are shipwrecked on a desert island. The Earl is a man of liberal social views; his butler, Crichton, a firm believer in the status quo. But as the most practical of the castaways Crichton finds himself in charge and by Act III, set two years after the shipwreck, he has assumed authority.

When the play was revived at the Royalty Theatre in 1920 the women's Act III costumes were designed by Claude Shepperson (1867-1921), an artist and book illustrator who was better known for his black and white line drawings than as a costume designer. Shepperson created some amusing outfits which showed the Earl's daughters acclimatised to their surroundings and transformed into Amazonian hunters, but ones with smart 1920s hairstyles. The card, on which this design is mounted, is heavily annotated with notes about the costume and explains that Lady Mary is wearing a 'combination suit', combining a sleeveless top and a pair of shorts, and has a belt of jade green and sapphire blue feathers.


Object details

Categories
Object type
TitleThe Admirable Crichton (generic title)
Materials and techniques
Ink and watercolour on paper pasted on card in card mount
Brief description
Costume design by Claude Shepperson for Lady Mary Lasenby in J.M. Barrie's play The Admirable Crichton, Royalty Theatre, 1920.
Physical description
Costume design by Claude Shepperson for Lady Mary Lasenby in The Admirable Crichton, Royalty Theatre, 1920. Young woman with short red hair facing right, drawing a longbow. She wears what appears to be a short dress of leopardskin, with a long belt of green and blue leaf shapes and has a water bottle at her right hip. The design has been pasted on card and firmly attached to a card mount. On the card below the design are pencil annotations which give details of the costume. On the back of the card are pen and ink sketches for leggings, all but one crossed out.
Dimensions
  • Design height: 32cm
  • Design width: 20.2cm
  • Card height: 36.5cm
  • Card width: 21.5cm
  • Mount height: 39cm
  • Mount width: 28cm
Marks and inscriptions
  • 'Shepperson' (Artist's signature in pencil lower right hand corner of design)
  • 'Miss Julia James' dress - / Lady Mary' (Annotations in pencil in lower left hand corner of card. There are further pencil annotations detailing the costume in the lower right hand corner.)
  • 'Bequeathed by Mr. L.E. Berman' (Printed, lower left hand corner of card.)
Credit line
Bequeathed by Mr L.E. Berman
Object history
J.M. Barrie's play The Admirable Crichton (first staged in 1902) was presented at the Royalty Theatre in 1920 with a revised ending. The cast included Dennis Eadie as the butler Crichton, Alfred Bishop as the Earl of Loan, Julia James as Lady Mary Lasenby, Ann Desmond as Lady Catherine Lasenby, Cicely Chance as Lady Agatha Lasenby and Sylvia Oakley as Tweeny. The play was directed by Gerald du Maurier. Claude Shepperson designed the women's Act III costumes, which were made by the theatrical costumiers, B.J. Simmons & Co.
Summary
In his popular play, The Admirable Crichton (1902), J.M. Barrie looked at the British class system through the medium of comic fantasy. An Earl, his family, friends and servants are shipwrecked on a desert island. The Earl is a man of liberal social views; his butler, Crichton, a firm believer in the status quo. But as the most practical of the castaways Crichton finds himself in charge and by Act III, set two years after the shipwreck, he has assumed authority.

When the play was revived at the Royalty Theatre in 1920 the women's Act III costumes were designed by Claude Shepperson (1867-1921), an artist and book illustrator who was better known for his black and white line drawings than as a costume designer. Shepperson created some amusing outfits which showed the Earl's daughters acclimatised to their surroundings and transformed into Amazonian hunters, but ones with smart 1920s hairstyles. The card, on which this design is mounted, is heavily annotated with notes about the costume and explains that Lady Mary is wearing a 'combination suit', combining a sleeveless top and a pair of shorts, and has a belt of jade green and sapphire blue feathers.
Collection
Accession number
S.5429-2009

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Record createdFebruary 1, 2010
Record URL
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