Costume design by Attilio Comelli for a Russian peasant in Act I of a production of Sybil at Daly's Theatre, 1921. Emile Littler Archive.

Costume design for a member of the chorus in a production of Sybil at Daly's Theatre. It shows a full length image of a woman in a costume loosely inspired by Russian 'peasant dress'. She is dressed in a loose cream shirt and navy sleeveless tunic finishing just above her hips above a narrow skirt. The shirt has cream sleeves striped with a thick band of navy blue and decorated with a row of delicate crosses at the cuffs. The sleeveless tunic has thick bands of gold at the centre front, shoulders and hem. The skirt is dark red with a wide green band at the hem and over this she wears a narrow cream apron with a central pale grey panel and decorated at the base with delicate yellow, pale green and grey motifs. She wears a pale green and yellow checked headscarf wrapped around her head over a close fitting red cap and carries a cream cloth in her right hand. The design is signed Comelli and dated 1920.

The borders of design are bound in a transparent gauze which is pinned in place. A hand drawn chart detailing the measurements of the actress for whom the costume was intended is pinned to the rear.

Gift of the Estate of Emile Littler

Costume design by Attilio Comelli for a Russian Peasant, in Act I of a production of Sybil at Daly's Theatre, in 1921.

Sybil, or Szibill in the original Hungarian is an operetta with music by Victor Jacobi. The story follows Sybil, a singer from Paris, who arrives in Russia and meets an officer, Petrov who falls in love with her. There follows a case of mistaken identity in which Sybil is thought to be the wife of the Grand Duke. The Grand Duke goes along with this deception and his wife pretends to be Sybil. The Grand Duchess then becomes attracted to Petrov and the Grand Duke tries to attack him. After much confusion everyone's true identity is revealed and the play ends happily.

Comelli (1858-1925) was the house designer of the Royal Opera House from the late 1880s to the early 1920s. During this period he also worked for the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane and also designed costumes from a number of Gilbert&Sullivan productions.

This production of the play opened at Daly's Theatre, London on 19th February 1921.

S.2827-2010