Friday, March 14, 2014

Object of the Day, Museum Edition: A Young Professor, Nineteenth Century



Chromolithograph after an unknown artist
Nineteenth Century
The George Speaight Archive at
The Victoria & Albert Museum




I very much like this Nineteenth Century print of a beautiful drawing of a budding Punch professor. A young boy with a puppet booth carries a drum on his back. In front of him he walks his puppet, a marionette figure of Mr. Punch.

What’s interesting about this is that by the Nineteenth Century, most Punchinellos were glove puppets which were performed in the Victorian style fit-up which first comes to mind when we think of Punch & Judy. In fact, marionette Punch and Judy shows were a century out of vogue in the U.K. So, this was a sort of nod to the antique and that makes it all the more charming.

Of course, this is from the George Speaight Archive at the V&A.



The reverse shows a page from an album.

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