Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
This exhibition charts the spectacular rise and fall of the English toy theatre, from
its origins in the theatrical souvenir prints of the early 1800’s, its development into
a working replica miniature theatre for the home and its struggle to compete with the
explosion of popular print at the end of the century. The major sideline of the toy theatre
business, the theatrical portraits, will also be explored showing how the cultivation of
verisimilitude contributed to the growth of celebrity culture.
Visiting hours:
Their transformation from lottery into theatrical prints was due to West’s familial connections to the nearby
Covent Garden Theatre where his father was under property-man, his sister a dancer and another sister a fruit
seller so ‘the idea struck me that something theatrical would sell’. West produced a sheet of characters in the
lottery style from the pantomime Mother Goose which opened at the Covent Garden theatre in 1806. As the play
which had established the fame of the clown Joseph Grimaldi, West found ‘it went like wildfire among the young
folks’ and he acquired three presses to keep up with demand forming the beginning of the theatrical print trade.
1. West – Harlequin and Mother Goose; or, The Golden Egg (1811)
This is a later reprint of West’s original 1811 print in the lottery style with his own rhyming captions. The images
show from top left to bottom right: Mr Simmons as Mother Goose, Joseph Grimaldi in the ‘Bang-up’ song,
Harlequin John Bologna in the same part, Punch with a salt box, Punch, Judy, John Bologna disguised as a fruit
girl, and Joseph Grimaldi. Below it is a lottery style print on a generalised theatrical theme, here Shakespearean
characters, but these were not topical images from current stage productions.
1 All excerpts from this interview taken from: The Unknown Mayhew: selections from the Morning Chronicle 1849-50
2. West – Ferdinand of Spain (1813)
Throughout 1811 West began to move away from the lottery box characters towards an open layout with
characters placed parallel to the short side of the sheet so they could be drawn larger and with greater detail. This
format generally included the title of the play, place first performed, the names of characters and sometimes also
the names of the actors in the part, and the price – West always sold plain prints at 1d and coloured sheets at 2d.
These prints were intended as theatrical souvenirs for contemporary performances and West would emphasise
these links, for example his print of Ferdinand states it is ‘Now performing with Unbounded applause at Astley’s’.
Prints would be produced as soon as possible if a play proved popular, The Miller and his Men was being printed
by Mrs Jameson within a month after opening.
4. The Dramatized Works of Walter Scott: The Lady on the Lake play-text (1810)
Scott’s poem was dramatized by T.J. Dibdin for the Surrey Theatre in 1810. The theatrical publishers would send
their artist to the theatre with a rough sketch of characters (and later scenery) which he would then dress by copying
costumes from the stage. This could turn into two way process as West describes: ‘The wardrobe people at the
minor theatres and masquerade people used to buy a great many to make their dresses from’. This play-text shows
the original cast and a description of their costume so it is possible to compare the accuracy of West’s prints, see
for example Fitzjames, Brien and Ellen.
5. Hodgson’s characters in The Infernal Secret (1822) and Romeo and Juliet (1823)
Hodgson also made use of William Heath’s services – in Romeo and Juliet (above) Heath has included his
signature. The Infernal Secret (below) was drawn by William’s brother Henry Heath and the difference in quality
between the artists is pronounced.
9. Copper plate and print of Skelt’s Master Burke in six favourite characters No.2 (c.1830)
From the initial sketches the engraver (not necessarily the original artist) would place the sketch onto a prepared
plate and run it through a press to create an impression and reverse the image. A needle was used to cut the design
and add shading. The plate is then immersed in acid which ‘bites’ a line wherever the needle has touched a process
that is actually etching but is referred to as engraving in relation to theatrical prints. The plate can then be dried and
inked ready for printing. Copper plates were most commonly used although later in the century some publishers
also used steel plates and lithography for portraits. The finished print now the right way round and coloured can be
seen on the right.
16. Stokes’ Olympic Revels (1832) & O. Hodgson’s The Siege of Troy (1833)
These are some of the last plays published by the ‘Regency’ publishers West and Hodgson. Although they altered
their sheets to match the new format they did not default on the quality or prices of their work and so could not
compete with the cut-throat halfpenny publishers as West stated: ‘they used to copy my penny ones and sell ‘em at
*From Robert Louis Stevenson’s essay ‘A penny plain and twopence coloured’
half-price, so I thought it high time to give over [...] I wasn’t going to reduce to halfpenny – not I’. West reissued a
few prints under the name of his housekeeper Sarah Stokes but on the verge of bankruptcy he left the theatrical
print trade followed by Hodgson in 1834.
17. Hodgson and Green – scene from Aladdin (1832 & 1841)
The collapse of the penny publishers was capitalised on by the halfpenny publishers who saw an opportunity to
acquire plays for their own stock. Here Green has copied Hodgson’s version of Aladdin then reversed the print
and reduced its size to sell at a halfpenny giving evidence for West’s claim of the plagiarism of penny prints.
29. Skelt’s Harlequin Little King Pippin (c.1834) and Pantomime tricks (c.1840s)
West confined his pantomimes to the Christmas season at the patent theatres but as plays lengthened he ceased
production of these in the 1820s and it was the Skelt’s who revived toy theatre pantomimes in the 1830s with
Harlequin Little King Pippin. Pantomimes required tricks which would make use of trapdoors and pop-ups. The
characters were folded along the dotted lines then with a pull on strings they would ‘pop out’ from the objects
concealing them at a whack from Harlequin’s magic sword or bat.
35. Park’s original and new characters for The Miller and his Men
When penny packets began to produce or give away copies of The Miller and his Men the toy theatre publishers
were quick to retaliate with new versions. Park produced a large and detailed 4d set which is obviously superior in
quality to the original halfpenny version.
38. Webb and Pollock’s playbooks for The Miller and his Men
The different approach to the toy theatre by Webb and Pollock is also evident from the playbooks they produced,
when comparing the first page of each. While both are adapted versions of the original text Webb (above) retains
the theatrical language and a large amount of stage directions, even those that would be impossible to reproduce
with fixed paper figures: ‘GRINDOFF coming forward seems surprised at seeing LOTHAIR’, making his plays
very complex and lengthy recitals.
In contrast Pollock (below) has simplified his stage directions, modernised the language used and reduced the text
as much as possible making his play easily comprehensible to children. This was the key difference between the
publishers, Webb’s plays though more artistic were not as practical as Pollock’s who understood that toy theatre
plays which had once been a leisure pursuit for young men were now primarily a child’s toy and only needed a
minimalist design and basic instructions.
Ultimately, the decline of the toy theatre business was due to the change of drama on the London stages, the toy
theatre was a perfect picture-box for visual melodramas and could not be adapted for the genre of realism which
pervaded the theatres at the end of the century, replacing sensationalism with psychological drama and witty
dialogue. Unable to draw on the London stage for plays and with an overabundance of cheap old stock available
the toy theatre industry was relegated to history but in itself preserves a historical record, each play crystallises its
real life counterpart and provides a window onto the Regency and early Victorian stage.
‘The poor stage is but the show-glass to a toy-shop’
Alongside toy theatre plays the theatrical publishers produced a variety of ‘juvenile sundries’ to capitalise on all
aspects of the theatrical trade. The most important of these were the collectable groups of characters and scenes
and the theatrical portraits of contemporary actors and actresses in their most famous roles, consolidating the
growing celebrity culture.
*Description taken from Engel and Siddons’ Practical illustrations of rhetorical gesture and action. 2nd ed, 1822.
55. O. Hodgson – Mrs Faucet as Delha in Koulikhan (c.1830s)
The verse satire Kouli Khan, or, The progress of error was produced in reaction to King George IV’s attempt to
gain an annulment of his marriage to Queen Caroline from parliament in 1820 which was strongly opposed by the
public who viewed her as a ‘wronged woman’. Becoming a famous actress allowed women to overcome the
boundaries class and female etiquette to become financially independent or the head of their household. Actresses
like Mrs Egerton, Ellen Terry and Lillie Langtry were quick to see theatrical portraiture as a means of image
management to achieve celebrity and they also utilised memoirs, interviews and photographs. Actresses also
promoted their own style of fashion on stage and acted as advisors to noblewomen, Siddons described how ‘lady B
borrowed her lady Macbeth banquet dress for a masquerade’. This portrait is an example of the intricacy and
detail of female costumes in theatrical portraits.