Not on display

Colonel Top Brass puppet

Glove Puppet
1978 (made)
Artist/Maker
Place of origin

This glove puppet of Colonel Top Brass was made by Paul Hansard for his puppet show The Wonderbean, 1978.

Although Paul Hansard’s career as a one-man puppeteer began in 1971 when John Wright invited him to give six puppet shows at the Little Angel Marionette Theatre in Islington, Paul Hansard had worked with puppets before, and his puppet show Johnny and Flonny, about a rabbit and a little boy who was always getting into scrapes, was shown as a weekly serial on ITV’s Small Time when ITV aired for the first time in 1955.

Over the course of his career as a one-man puppet show between 1971 and 1994, Paul Hansard created 13 shows, gave 3,971 performances and made over 200 puppets

Object details

Category
Object type
TitleColonel Top Brass puppet (generic title)
Materials and techniques
Carved wood, papier mâché, paint, cotton, leather, and metal
Brief description
Glove puppet of Colonel Top Brass, made by Paul Hansard and used in his puppet play The Wonderbean in 1978. Given by Paul Hansard.
Physical description
Glove puppet of Colonel Top Brass wearing a khaki brown military-style uniform, decorated with 9 brass-effect buttons. The uniform has two breast pockets,above one of them, is a row of embroidered colours - blue, red, green and yellow - to depict medals. Next to this is another type of embroidered medal in red, white, magenta pink and blue stripes. The collar is decorated with scarlet braiding, and he wears a military style cap in matching khaki brown with scarlet red trim with gold-coloured metal chain with buttons on either side of chain, each button depicting an anchor and a swirling ‘S’. . The skirt is made to cover the puppeteer's hand and wrist.
Dimensions
  • Height: 64.5cm
  • Hand to hand, with arms outstretched width: 25.0cm
  • Back of head to tip of nose depth: 11.0cm
Credit line
Given by Paul Hansard
Summary
This glove puppet of Colonel Top Brass was made by Paul Hansard for his puppet show The Wonderbean, 1978.

Although Paul Hansard’s career as a one-man puppeteer began in 1971 when John Wright invited him to give six puppet shows at the Little Angel Marionette Theatre in Islington, Paul Hansard had worked with puppets before, and his puppet show Johnny and Flonny, about a rabbit and a little boy who was always getting into scrapes, was shown as a weekly serial on ITV’s Small Time when ITV aired for the first time in 1955.

Over the course of his career as a one-man puppet show between 1971 and 1994, Paul Hansard created 13 shows, gave 3,971 performances and made over 200 puppets
Collection
Accession number
S.1172-2011

About this object record

Explore the Collections contains over a million catalogue records, and over half a million images. It is a working database that includes information compiled over the life of the museum. Some of our records may contain offensive and discriminatory language, or reflect outdated ideas, practice and analysis. We are committed to addressing these issues, and to review and update our records accordingly.

You can write to us to suggest improvements to the record.

Suggest feedback

Record createdMarch 13, 2012
Record URL
Download as: JSON