Not currently on display at the V&A

Backcloth

ca.1880 (painted)
Artist/Maker
Place of origin

Painted backcloth on a wooden batten representing a harbour scene of a row of houses with red and blue roofs, and a tavern The New Inn with a blue roof, by a harbour with lobster pots on the sand, the sea and cliffs behind. The cloth consists of two canvases attached back to back, with images on both sides. The other side [S.204:1-2007] represents a Bavarian-style turreted castle in a wood. The two canvases are not joined at the bottom and the back canvas is slightly shorter than the front. Green bias binding protects both left and right edges and joins the canvases together. The batten is round and held in a sleeve created from the back canvas. Two eye screws have been attached through the sleeve into the batten approx 22mm from both edges.


Object details

Categories
Object type
Materials and techniques
painted canvas
Brief description
Backcloth representing a harbour scene with cliffs behind. The scene on the reverse was used by the Chelsea Puppet Theatre group for their burlesque mediaeval-style melodrama The Secret Well, c.1960. Painted canvas, probably c.1870 and originally made for a marionette theatre production by the Tiller family company.
Physical description
Painted backcloth on a wooden batten representing a harbour scene of a row of houses with red and blue roofs, and a tavern The New Inn with a blue roof, by a harbour with lobster pots on the sand, the sea and cliffs behind. The cloth consists of two canvases attached back to back, with images on both sides. The other side [S.204:1-2007] represents a Bavarian-style turreted castle in a wood. The two canvases are not joined at the bottom and the back canvas is slightly shorter than the front. Green bias binding protects both left and right edges and joins the canvases together. The batten is round and held in a sleeve created from the back canvas. Two eye screws have been attached through the sleeve into the batten approx 22mm from both edges.
Dimensions
  • Cloth height: 121.5cm
  • Canvas width: 167.1cm
  • Top pole width: 182.5cm
Credit line
Given by the British Puppet and Model Theatre Guild
Production
Although this cloth was used by The Chelsea Puppet Theatre group for their burlesque mediaeval melodrama The Secret Well, it is probably of 19th century origin and may have come from a marionette company such as thast operated by the Tiller family.
Subjects depicted
Associated objects
Other number
V.42 - British Puppet and Model Theatre Guild number
Collection
Accession number
S.204:2-2007

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Record createdSeptember 8, 2008
Record URL
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