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Not currently on display at the V&A

The Punchinello Quadrille

Print
1849 (published)
Artist/Maker
Place of origin

This sheet music for The Punchinello Quadrille shows Punchinello or Pulchinello, the French version of the glove puppet Mr. Punch, doing battle with a cat, having already felled another character. An open-air audience including two French police officers, surround the puppet booth. It was published in 1849 by William Strange (1801-1871) and James Bingley as number 208 of their series of printed piano music known as The Musical Bouquet, a series of affordable piano music published weekly as individual pieces produced by steel engraving, and every six months as bound volumes. This is only one page of the music, and the page number 62, verso, shows it was removed from a bound volume. It is only half of the original quadrille which would have been printed on four sides and sold for 3d as an individual sheet. Strange and Bingley started publishing The Musical Bouquet from the office in 192 High Holborn in January 1845, with their illustrator Alfred Ashley (1820-1897) and their editor Francis Lancelott, probably inspired by G.H. Davidson's similar publication The Musical Treasury launched in 1844. Bingley had previously collaborated with Ashley in 1843-1844 to publish the two-volume Bingley's Select Vocalist, an eclectic collection of songs, glees and duets engraved by Bingley from drawings by Ashley. In the hands of Stange and Davidson the pieces published by The Musical Bouquet, including The Punchinello Quadrille, were largely pirated from other publishers. Strange sold his publishing business to his son William Strange Junior on 18th February 1849, but after that date Charles Sheard Senior is associated with The Musical Bouquet. He soon became its proprietor, increased its production to two pieces a week, and by its height of popularity in in the 1860s, to eight copies a week. On his death in 1873 his son Charles Sheard Junior took control of the firm as senior partner and The Musical Bouquet continued until 1898, after which Charles Sheard Junior continued publishing music sheets from 192 High Holborn.

William Strange Senior may have been forced to sell his publishing business, including The Musical Bouquet, to his son in 1849 as a result of the legal injunctions served on him in 1848, one by the music publisher Robert Cocks trying to stop Strange publishing a piece of music to which he was claiming copyright. For a while his son continued using the address 21 Paternoster Row that is seen on this music sheet. William Strange Senior had a history of publishing unsuccessful titles from the 1830s, and frequently assumed ownership of other people's publications for his own purposes. This sheet was in fact a pirated copy of a French music sheet originally called Monsieur Guignolet Quadrille, dedicated to a Mlle. Jenny Figat, illustrated by the French caricaturist and lithographer Frédéric Bouchot (1798-1860), lithographed by Louis Huard (1813-1874), and published in France probably about 1845 by Auguste Sauzeau (1801-1846). The image on the The Musical Bouquet music sheet is a close copy of the French original, with some characters on the far left omitted and an arched frame and decorative ivy border added. The words 'été' and 'poule' on the second page, for the second and third sections, bear witness to the French origin of the music and illustration appropriated by Strange.



Object details

Categories
Object type
TitleThe Punchinello Quadrille (published title)
Materials and techniques
Print
Brief description
Sheet music for The Punchinello Quadrille by Henri Bohlman. One sheet of the piano music published in 1849 by William Strange (1801-1871) and James Bingley as number 208 of The Musical Bouquet. Pirated copy of Monsieur Guignolet, a French music sheet illustrated by Frédéric Bouchot (1798-1860) lithographed by Louis Huard (1813-1874) and published in France ca.1845 by Auguste Sauzeau (1801-1846). George Speaight Punch & Judy Collection
Physical description
Sheet music cover for the piano music of The Punchinello Quadrille by Henri Bohlman illustrated with an image of a group of men and women including some French police officers, watching a French Punch and Judy show in the open air. The quadrille includes musical sketches for Punchinello, or Punch; the Dog, and the Magistrate. Page 62 from a bound volume of The Musical Bouquet, and only half of the original piece.
Dimensions
  • Height: 35.2cm
  • Width: 24.9cm
Credit line
Accepted by HM Government in Lieu of Inheritance Tax and allocated to the V&A in 2010.
Summary
This sheet music for The Punchinello Quadrille shows Punchinello or Pulchinello, the French version of the glove puppet Mr. Punch, doing battle with a cat, having already felled another character. An open-air audience including two French police officers, surround the puppet booth. It was published in 1849 by William Strange (1801-1871) and James Bingley as number 208 of their series of printed piano music known as The Musical Bouquet, a series of affordable piano music published weekly as individual pieces produced by steel engraving, and every six months as bound volumes. This is only one page of the music, and the page number 62, verso, shows it was removed from a bound volume. It is only half of the original quadrille which would have been printed on four sides and sold for 3d as an individual sheet. Strange and Bingley started publishing The Musical Bouquet from the office in 192 High Holborn in January 1845, with their illustrator Alfred Ashley (1820-1897) and their editor Francis Lancelott, probably inspired by G.H. Davidson's similar publication The Musical Treasury launched in 1844. Bingley had previously collaborated with Ashley in 1843-1844 to publish the two-volume Bingley's Select Vocalist, an eclectic collection of songs, glees and duets engraved by Bingley from drawings by Ashley. In the hands of Stange and Davidson the pieces published by The Musical Bouquet, including The Punchinello Quadrille, were largely pirated from other publishers. Strange sold his publishing business to his son William Strange Junior on 18th February 1849, but after that date Charles Sheard Senior is associated with The Musical Bouquet. He soon became its proprietor, increased its production to two pieces a week, and by its height of popularity in in the 1860s, to eight copies a week. On his death in 1873 his son Charles Sheard Junior took control of the firm as senior partner and The Musical Bouquet continued until 1898, after which Charles Sheard Junior continued publishing music sheets from 192 High Holborn.

William Strange Senior may have been forced to sell his publishing business, including The Musical Bouquet, to his son in 1849 as a result of the legal injunctions served on him in 1848, one by the music publisher Robert Cocks trying to stop Strange publishing a piece of music to which he was claiming copyright. For a while his son continued using the address 21 Paternoster Row that is seen on this music sheet. William Strange Senior had a history of publishing unsuccessful titles from the 1830s, and frequently assumed ownership of other people's publications for his own purposes. This sheet was in fact a pirated copy of a French music sheet originally called Monsieur Guignolet Quadrille, dedicated to a Mlle. Jenny Figat, illustrated by the French caricaturist and lithographer Frédéric Bouchot (1798-1860), lithographed by Louis Huard (1813-1874), and published in France probably about 1845 by Auguste Sauzeau (1801-1846). The image on the The Musical Bouquet music sheet is a close copy of the French original, with some characters on the far left omitted and an arched frame and decorative ivy border added. The words 'été' and 'poule' on the second page, for the second and third sections, bear witness to the French origin of the music and illustration appropriated by Strange.

Associated object
S.675-2010 (Object)
Collection
Accession number
S.1244-2010

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Record createdJune 25, 2010
Record URL
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