Marionette Costume thumbnail 1
Not on display

Marionette Costume

ca.1870 (made)
Place of origin

This wig is part of the marionette wardrobe used by the Tiller-Clowes marionette troupe from about 1870 until around 1914, when the company stopped presenting their touring shows, due to the increasing popularity of cinema, and male members of the troupe enlisting in the armed forces. The marionettes, costumes, backcloths and accessories had been stored by the family in a blacksmith's shop in Lincolnshire for over thirty years, and were purchased by the marionette enthusiasts Gerald Morice and George Speaight in 1945 from Harriet Clowes, a member of the Tiller-Clowes family, when they started work on recreating some of the puppets' original repertoire.

Some of the costumes were used when the marionettes took to the stage again as The Old Time Marionettes in August 1951 as part of The Festival of Britain celebrations at the Riverside Theatre, Festival Gardens, Battersea Park. This was one of twenty three items of costume, parts of costume and accessories that remained in George Speaight's attic, and were presented to the museum by his son who inherited them after his father's death in 2005.

Marionette troupes presented condensed versions of popular plays, pantomimes and melodramas with live musical accompaniment in fit-up canvas booths at fairgrounds and marketplaces, along with 'curtain-raising' Variety turns including singing and feats of acrobatics and tightrope-walking. Their costumes were modelled on those worn by contemporary performers on the human stage, and would have been made by members of the family. The V&A owns 35 of the figures, a fraction of their full working troupe but probably the largest surviving group from a 19th-century touring marionette theatre in Great Britain.

Object details

Categories
Object type
Materials and techniques
Hair and wool the hair plaited and pinned into a bun at the nape of the neck, sewn by hand
Brief description
Wig for a female marionette in the Tiller-Clowes troupe. Made by a member of the family, Lincolnshire, 1870s-1890s
Physical description
Female marionette's light brown wig on a woollen base with holes for head strings
Credit line
Accepted by HM Government in Lieu of Inheritance Tax and allocated to the V&A in 2010
Object history
This wig, along with marionettes from the Tiller troupe, their costumes and three of their original backcloths, had been stored in a blacksmith's shop in Lincolnshire for over thirty years, but were purchased by Gerald Morice and George Speaight in 1945 who began working on recreating some of the company's original repertoire. Some of them were used when the marionettes took to the stage again as The Old Time Marionettes in August 1951 as part of The Festival of Britain celebrations at the Riverside Theatre, Festival Gardens, Battersea Park. In the 1980s George Speaight lent the troupe to puppeteers in Germany. In the late 1990s he sold them to John Phillips, whose widow sold them in turn to The Theatre Museum after her husband's death in 1998. This was one of twenty three items of costume, parts of costume and accessories that remained in George Speaight's attic, and were presented to the museum by his son who inherited them after his father's death in 2005.
Summary
This wig is part of the marionette wardrobe used by the Tiller-Clowes marionette troupe from about 1870 until around 1914, when the company stopped presenting their touring shows, due to the increasing popularity of cinema, and male members of the troupe enlisting in the armed forces. The marionettes, costumes, backcloths and accessories had been stored by the family in a blacksmith's shop in Lincolnshire for over thirty years, and were purchased by the marionette enthusiasts Gerald Morice and George Speaight in 1945 from Harriet Clowes, a member of the Tiller-Clowes family, when they started work on recreating some of the puppets' original repertoire.

Some of the costumes were used when the marionettes took to the stage again as The Old Time Marionettes in August 1951 as part of The Festival of Britain celebrations at the Riverside Theatre, Festival Gardens, Battersea Park. This was one of twenty three items of costume, parts of costume and accessories that remained in George Speaight's attic, and were presented to the museum by his son who inherited them after his father's death in 2005.

Marionette troupes presented condensed versions of popular plays, pantomimes and melodramas with live musical accompaniment in fit-up canvas booths at fairgrounds and marketplaces, along with 'curtain-raising' Variety turns including singing and feats of acrobatics and tightrope-walking. Their costumes were modelled on those worn by contemporary performers on the human stage, and would have been made by members of the family. The V&A owns 35 of the figures, a fraction of their full working troupe but probably the largest surviving group from a 19th-century touring marionette theatre in Great Britain.
Collection
Accession number
S.447-2021

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Record createdMay 17, 2021
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