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Puppet

Puppet

  • Place of origin:

    Marlborough, England (designed and made)

  • Date:

    1963 (designed and made)

  • Artist/Maker:

    Pelham Puppets Ltd (designer and maker)

  • Materials and Techniques:

    [puppet] Carved and painted wood with machine sewn garments
    [box] Printed cardboard

  • Credit Line:

    Given by Penny Kelly and Thomas Witham-Kelly

  • Museum number:

    B.248:1 to 3-2009

  • Gallery location:

    In Storage

  • Download image

Pelham Puppets 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.

Pelham puppets used simple construction methods, 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 depicts a baby bear, probably related to Goldilocks and the three bears.

Physical description

[puppet] Jointed SL baby bear marionette puppet made by Pelham Puppets Ltd, ca.1963. Solid shaped head with hollow hands and feet. Hands are painted white to appear as if gloved. Upper body and arms are covered in artificial light brown fur, bear is also wearing green and red tartan dungarees. The face is painted to look as if young with rosy cheeks and cute smile and baby blue eyes. This puppet is the smaller SL variety. Pelham Puppet Ltd. tag sewn into the back of the dungarees.
[box] Coloured lid for Pelham puppet box, used for most standard puppets between 1962 and 1969. Depicts a snake charmer as one of the characters on the side.
[box] White box base, part of new coloured design of box introduced in 1962.

Place of Origin

Marlborough, England (designed and made)

Date

1963 (designed and made)

Artist/maker

Pelham Puppets Ltd (designer and maker)

Materials and Techniques

[puppet] Carved and painted wood with machine sewn garments
[box] Printed cardboard

Dimensions

Height: 7.2 cm, Length: 32.8 cm, Width: 10.4 cm
[puppet] Height: 25.5 cm, Width: 15.5 cm
[box] Length: 32.8 cm, Height: 7.3 cm, Width: 10.4 cm
[box] Length: 32.8 cm, Width: 10.3 cm, Height: 7.2 cm

Descriptive line

Baby bear puppet marionette made by Pelham Puppets Ltd., complete with original coloured box, ca.1963.

Categories

Children & Childhood; Dolls & Toys

Production Type

Mass produced

Collection code

MoC

Download image
Qr_O1155555
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