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Not currently on display at the V&A

costume design

Costume Design
1860 (designed)
Artist/Maker
Place of origin

This is one of a set of seven designs by Richard Wynn Keene or Dykwynkyn (1809-1887), for an assortment of comic Knights in the first Christmas pantomime ever staged at Her Majesty's Theatre. Harlequin and Tom Thumb!, or, Merlin The Magician and the Good Fairies of the Court of King Arthur, which opened on Christmas Eve 1860, was by all accounts a splendid pantomime, with brilliant set designs supervised by the well-known scene designer William Beverley, and remarkable costumes and the pantomime 'big heads' designed by the artist, sculptor, mask and property maker and costume designer known as Dykwynkyn. The heads traditionally featured in the opening of pantomimes at this date, and their design was a speciality of Dykwynkyn's.

The Knights in Tom Thumb appeared in 'The Banqueting Hall in the Palace of King Arthur', the scene in the Harlequinade in which Tom Thumb lived in King Arthur's Court. With his tabard featuring a poster for the Royal Alhambra Music Hall and the Knight closing his visor, this Last Knight was a punning reference to the popular Variety theatre in London's Leicester Square.


Object details

Categories
Object type
Titlecostume design (generic title)
Materials and techniques
Pencil and watercolour on paper
Brief description
Costume design for The Last Knight, one of several Knight designs for the pantomime Harlequin and Tom Thumb! or, Merlin The Magician, & the Good Fairies of the Court of King Arthur, Her Majesty's Theatre, 24 December 1860. Pencil and watercolour by 'Dykwynkyn' - Richard Wynn Keene (1809-1887)
Physical description
Pencil and watercolour costume design on cream paper for The Last Knight, depicting a standing Knight in chain mail closing the visor of his helmet. He is wearing a poster-like tabard which features the words: 'ALHAMBRA OPEN EVERY EVENING', and he is carrying a shield on his left arm on which is written: 'PAY HERE'. The sheet of cream paper has been cut and pasted on to a buff-coloured paper support. The title 'THE LAST KNIGHT' is written below the image on the main sheet, which is also inscribed top left: 'No. 6'.
Dimensions
  • Overall height of support paper height: 27.4cm
  • Height of smaller sheet height: 25.8cm
  • Overall width of support paper width: 22.0cm
  • Width of smaller sheet width: 20.0cm
One sheet has been trimmed and pasted on a larger support sheet.
Marks and inscriptions
  • 'THE LAST KNIGHT' (Pen and ink below the image on the main sheet of paper.)
  • 'No.6' (Pencil note, top left of the smaller sheet of paper.)
  • Dykwynkyn (Signed in pen and ink on the shape of an artist's palette on which the character is standing.)
  • 'MUSIC HALL' (Feint pencil inscription left centre, to the Knight's right.)
Credit line
Given by Mrs. W.W. Smith
Object history
Given to the donor in the 1920s by her husband's aunt, a friend of Florence Glossop Harris, daughter of Sir Augustus Harrris and wife of Frank Cellier.
Subject depicted
Summary
This is one of a set of seven designs by Richard Wynn Keene or Dykwynkyn (1809-1887), for an assortment of comic Knights in the first Christmas pantomime ever staged at Her Majesty's Theatre. Harlequin and Tom Thumb!, or, Merlin The Magician and the Good Fairies of the Court of King Arthur, which opened on Christmas Eve 1860, was by all accounts a splendid pantomime, with brilliant set designs supervised by the well-known scene designer William Beverley, and remarkable costumes and the pantomime 'big heads' designed by the artist, sculptor, mask and property maker and costume designer known as Dykwynkyn. The heads traditionally featured in the opening of pantomimes at this date, and their design was a speciality of Dykwynkyn's.

The Knights in Tom Thumb appeared in 'The Banqueting Hall in the Palace of King Arthur', the scene in the Harlequinade in which Tom Thumb lived in King Arthur's Court. With his tabard featuring a poster for the Royal Alhambra Music Hall and the Knight closing his visor, this Last Knight was a punning reference to the popular Variety theatre in London's Leicester Square.
Associated objects
Other number
S.7-2008 - Cancelled number
Collection
Accession number
S.738-1987

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Record createdJanuary 17, 2008
Record URL
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