This watercolour shows the chief theatre technician and stage manager at the Palace Theatre, Walter Pfeffer Dando (1852-1944) working above the scenes on the gridiron on the flying equipment for Mlle. Aenea who appeared there in the 'ballet divertissement' The Spider and the Fly in October 1894. Dando was a specialist in technical theatre and production who by 1875 had patented a device to fly human performers over a stage. Three years later he perfected the machinery and effects for aerial ballet, as performed at the Gaiety Theatre by 'Aenea', the stage name of Letitia Barry, (niece of the playwright, theatrical manager, acrobat and pantomimist George Conquest), whom he married in 1877. In 1879 the couple took their act to the Theâtre du Châtelet, Paris, and continued to work on the Continent for several years while maintaining addresses in London. In 1887 he was hired by Richard D'Oyly Carte to design and install the stage and machinery for Carte's new Royal English Opera House that opened in 1891 at Cambridge Circus, a plot of land on Shaftesbury Avenue at the junction with Charing Cross Road.

The image was created for publication by the British artist, war artist and explorer Julius Mendes Price (1957-1924) who provided illustrations for The Illustrated London News and Vanity Fair and who often signed his work with his initials 'J.M.P'.