Down
Costume Design
1856 (designed)
1856 (designed)
Artist/Maker | |
Place of origin |
This is a design by Richard Wynn Keene or Dykwynkyn (1809-1887), for a character in the pantomime See Saw Margery Daw, or Harlequin Holiday and the Island of Ups and Downs' which opened at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane on 26 December 1856, with set designs supervised by the well-known scene designer William Beverley, and costumes and pantomime 'big heads' designed by the artist, sculptor, mask and property maker and costume designer Richard Keene. This character was played by Mr. Topham and appeared in scene 1: 'The Region of Reverses in the Island of Ups and Downs'. The playbill credits: 'The Masks, Models and Physiognomical Devices, Designed and Executed by the celebrated Dykwynkyn'. In an article of 1867 the playwright T.W. Robertson described him as 'the presiding genius of all theatrical Christmas revels.'
For his pantomime work Keene used the name Dykwynkyn which he characteristically signed on an artist's palette on the ground. He was also responsible for designs for a number of other lavish productions of the day, and for these he was billed as Mr. R.W. Keene.
For his pantomime work Keene used the name Dykwynkyn which he characteristically signed on an artist's palette on the ground. He was also responsible for designs for a number of other lavish productions of the day, and for these he was billed as Mr. R.W. Keene.
Object details
Categories | |
Object type | |
Title | Down (assigned by artist) |
Materials and techniques | Pencil and watercolour on paper |
Brief description | Costume design for Down, a 'Needy Weedy Seedy Greedy' character in the pantomime See Saw Margery Daw, or Harlequin Holiday and the Island of Ups and Downs', Theatre Royal Drury Lane, 26 December 1856. Pencil and watercolour by Dykwynkyn - Richard Wynn Keene (1809-1887) . |
Physical description | Pencil and watercolour costume design on cream paper for Needy Weedy Seedy Greedy, or Down, depicting a distressed-looking man standing looking to his right, wearing tattered clothes, a battered stovepipe hat and slippers, holding a fish on the end of a clay pipe in his right hand, and a broken plate in his left hand. The title 'DOWN' is written in watercolour below the image, with the words Needy Weedy Seedy and Greedy around it. An artist's palette, inscribed 'Dykwynkyn', is on the ground to the right of the character. |
Dimensions |
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Marks and inscriptions |
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Subject depicted | |
Summary | This is a design by Richard Wynn Keene or Dykwynkyn (1809-1887), for a character in the pantomime See Saw Margery Daw, or Harlequin Holiday and the Island of Ups and Downs' which opened at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane on 26 December 1856, with set designs supervised by the well-known scene designer William Beverley, and costumes and pantomime 'big heads' designed by the artist, sculptor, mask and property maker and costume designer Richard Keene. This character was played by Mr. Topham and appeared in scene 1: 'The Region of Reverses in the Island of Ups and Downs'. The playbill credits: 'The Masks, Models and Physiognomical Devices, Designed and Executed by the celebrated Dykwynkyn'. In an article of 1867 the playwright T.W. Robertson described him as 'the presiding genius of all theatrical Christmas revels.' For his pantomime work Keene used the name Dykwynkyn which he characteristically signed on an artist's palette on the ground. He was also responsible for designs for a number of other lavish productions of the day, and for these he was billed as Mr. R.W. Keene. |
Collection | |
Accession number | S.242-2011 |
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Record created | May 16, 2011 |
Record URL |
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