2011 is an important year; Toy Theatre is exactly 200 years old!

Early in 1811 William West, a London print seller, published a sheet showing eight characters from the popular pantomime, “Harlequin and Mother Goose”. The print was in the style of children’s lottery prints, each figure being drawn inside a box with a caption underneath. It is now believed that the plate was engraved for William West by John Green who later claimed to have been “The original inventor”. Green did not draw the figures but copied them from various sources.

The publication appears to have been an outstanding success, 5000 copies were sold immediately. West followed this with the publication of similar souvenir sheets in two or three plates covering at least 21 other plays during 1811. The “box” style was quickly abandoned.

West was not alone. Two lady print sellers, Mrs. Jameson of Duke’s Court off Bow Street and Mrs.Hebberd of Marylebone each published similar souvenir sheets during 1811. In all we know of 35 publications that year covering 30 separate play titles.

A year later stage fronts, wooden stages and scenery made their appearance and the Toy Theatre, as we know it, began. The events of 1811 were however the origin.

To celebrate we are providing copies of typical 1811 sheets for you to download.

“Harlequin and Mother Goose” is the original sheet engraved by Green and published by West. It is the “missing link” between children’ lottery prints and the Toy Theatre.

“Council of Ten” is an example of one of the earliest West publications. It shows the principal characters in that play, which was also known as the, “Lake of the Grotto,” performed on and around the water tank at the Sadlers Wells Theatre. Notice that two characters appear to float on small rafts! The two sheets of this play were copied and republished by George Skelt and these are reproduced here.

West original

Council of Ten

The latest in our series of Skelt Juvenile Drama reprints is now available here for you to download for free. The “Waterman” is a very short and performable play and we have reproduced in it colour to make performing it easier.

This is a sample that shows you the standard of the plays that we reprint and we hope that you will enjoy it. For more titles see our shop on www.toytheatre.co.uk . We intend to issue some more free downloads in the future.

Please note that this is a 3.5MB PDF file.   Waterman

Pollock’s Toy Theatres, reprints of nineteenth century toy theatres and plays and adapted plays for easy performance.

Pollock’s Toy Museum Trust, reprints of nineteenth century plays and related publications.

Hugo Brown, reproductions of original toy theatre plays and prints by J.K.Green, his ancestor.

Toy Theatre (Trevor Griffin), new plays in traditional style, reprints. publishers of these web pages.

Joseph Hope-Williams. New toy theatre plays and related material made using traditional styles and processes.

Toy Theatre Gallery. Reproductions of original toy theatre plays and related material.

GERMANY:

m+n reprise, reprints of Sholz plays and theatre.

DENMARK:

Priors Dukketeatre, original publisher, toy theatres and plays, reprints of early sheets.

Oldfux, reprints of early sheets.

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:

Model Theater at Kannik’s Korner, German and Danish Toy Theatre plays, English texts, original and reproduction.

Please advise us of any changes and additions to the above!

AUSTRIA

Historisches Museum der Stadt Wien

     Nationalbibliothek, Wien.

Stadtmuseum, Wels.

BRITAIN

Birmingham Public Library

     Derby Museum

Edinburgh Public Library

     Robert Louis Stevensons birthplace, Edinburgh

     British Museum, London

London Guildhall Library

     London Museum

Pollock’s Toy Museum, London.

     Victoria and Albert Museum London

Castle Museum, York.

DENMARK:

Royal Library, Copenhagen

     Art Industry Museum, Copenhagen

National Museum, Danish FolkMuseum, Copenhagen.

     Priors Toy Theatre Museum, Copenhagen

GERMANY:

Bibl.Lipperheide, Berlin.

     Museum fur Deutsche Volkskunde, Berlin

Deutsches Institut fur Puppenspiel, Bochum

     Historisches Museum, Hanover

Hanau Museum

     Darmstadt City Museum

State Folk Art Museum Dresden-Radeboul

Puppenspielverein, Kaufbeuren

     Institut fur Theaterwissenschaft, Universitat, Cologne.

Bayerisches Nationalmuseum, Munich.

     Puppentheatersammlung der Stadt Muenchen

Theatermuseum Clara-Ziegler-Stiftung , Munich

     Germanisches Museum, Nuremberg

Stadtmuseum, Nuremburg.

     Wuerttembergische Landesbibliothek, Stuttgart

ITALY:

Castello Sforzesco, Milan

SWEDEN:

Theatre Museum Stockholm

     Drottningholm Theatre Museum, library

Harnnosand City Library

Nykoping, Harold Gripe Collection, Gripe Museum of Model Theatre

UNITED STATES:

Museum of the City of New York

     New York Public Library

Princeton University, New Jersey, Cotsen Children’s Library (Webb Archive)

The above vary greatly in content and accessibility. Usually the whole or a large part of the collection can only be seen on prior application.

“Penny Plain – Two Pence Coloured” A.E.Wilson, G.Harrop, London 1932.

“Grosse Liebe zu Kleinen Theatern”, W.Roehler, Hamburg 1963.

“Alfred Jacobsen’s Danske Teaterdekoratioer & Danske Billeder”, P.Syskind & P.Brandt, Copenhagen 1967.

“Vi spiller dukketeater”, K.Sanvej, Copenhagen 1969.

“The History of the English Toy Theatre”, G.Speaight, Studio Vista, London 1969.

“Theater-Geschichte im Spiegel der Kinder-Theater”, Georg Garde, Borgens Forlag, Copenhagen 1971.

“Playing with the Toy Theatre”, Joseph Viscomi, New York 1977.

“Alfred Jacobsen’s Dukketeatre”, Georg Garde, Priors Dukketeatre, Copenhagen 1980.

“Toy Theatre”,  Editor: K.Fawdry, Pollock’s Toy Theatres Ltd, London 1980.

“Dukketeater I Ill.Familie Journal, 1914-1931″, John Grytner, Nakskov 1980.

“The Story of Benjamin Pollock and Pollock’s Toy Museum”, K.Fawdry, Pollock’s Toy Theatres Ltd, London 1981.

“Schreibers Kinder~Theater en fortegnelse ved Per Brink Abrahamsen”, 1982.

“Det Danske Dukketeater”, Sven-Erik Olsen, Denmark 1985.

“Modellteater Boken”, Kerstin Holmberg, Forlaghhuset Hagaberg, Vallentuna 1986.

“Schreiber’s Kinder Theater”, Kurt Pfluger and Helmut Herbst, Verlag  Renate Raecke, Pinneberg 1986.

“Papier Theater”, Herbert Zwiauer, Verlag Herold, Vienna 1987.

“Toy Theatres of the World”, Peter Baldwin, Zwemmer, London 1992.

“The Juvenile Drama. A Union Catalogue”, George Speaight, The Society for Theatre Research, London 1999.

“George Speaight – A life in Toy Theatre”, Pollock’s Toy Museum, London 2003/

“William West and the Regency Toy Theatre”, David Powell, Sir John Soane’s Museum, London 2004.

“W.G.Webb and the Victorian Toy Theatre”, David Powell, The Webb Festival, London 2005.

“Printing the Toy Theatre”, David Powell, J.R.Piggott, Horatio Blood, Pollock’s Toy Museum Trust, 2009.

The development from portraits in proper Toy Theatre plays was a gradual process. Major steps were the representation of the characters in the different costumes and poses they adopted through the play, and the publication of specially adapted playbooks. Plays were printed from etched copper plates and coloured by hand, they were sold at the rate of one penny plain or tuppence coloured. By 1830 numerous publishers were producing very artistic Toy Theatre plays, the problem was that the sophistication had greatly increased the cost and few children could afford them.

The popularity of the Toy Theatre owes much to the “Halfpenny publishers” such as Green and Skelt who by some simplification were able to halve the price and thereby reach a much larger market. “Skelts Juvenile Drama” sold all over the country and became a household name.

Later in the century, as the real theatre changed in character so the popular appeal of Toy Theatre declined. the established publishers were driven out of business by foreign theatres imported for the upper class market and cheap prints given away with boy’s magazines. the quality of the work of the remaining publishers greatly declined, reduced to cheap prints from worn secondhand plates sold in packets at a penny a play or even a halfpenny. The traditional Toy Theatre was kept alive by the two minor London publishers Webb and Redington.

The survival of the Toy Theatre in the twentieth century has been based on nostalgia and the efforts of a handful of enthusiasts. Up until 1939 one could still buy Toy Theatres from Webb and Benjamin Pollock (who had succeeded Redington), old men who struggled on with an old fashioned trade but whose work was increasingly being appreciated by the artistic world. At the end of the war, only the Pollock business survived but with a bombed out shop the final curtain was due for the Toy Theatre.

There had been several attempts at revival, none of which had much success. In 1946 a company was formed, Benjamin Pollock Ltd., to take over the Pollock stock and to publish new productions on a large scale. After ten years the project had failed as a business. The wreck was salvaged by Mrs.M.Fawdry who with family friends and enthusiasts created Pollock’s Toy Museum which diversified but at the same time ensured the survival of traditional Toy Theatre in England.

As in England, the Toy Theatre produced in the German states was popular, prolific and derived from the real theatre. In other respects however it was very different. The sheets tended to be much larger, in later days they were printed by colour lithography and usually only one sheet of characters were issued so performance was not very realistic.Sheets of characters published as costume guides to provincial theatre managers gradually evolved into Toy Theatre sheets. there were many publishers from about 1830.The repertoire was taken from the real stage, it included opera, drama and also specially adapted plays from legend, folk and fairy tales. It was these latter types which eventually became most popular. the standard of design varied, some sheets were extremely artistic others charm because of their crudity. Copying between publishers was the norm and it is fascinating to trace designs back to their sources.Large solid Toy Theatre stages were built for the middle class drawing rooms. Performances were not very  realistic because figures were moved by ugly wires from above, a tradition handed on from marionettes.Although most of the German publishers’ productions were mid-nineteenth century in character, one of them, Schreiber, modernised their products to represent the later realistic movement. To do this he engaged a notable Bavarian scenic artist, Theodor Guggenberger. His scenes are among the most amazing ever produced for the Toy Theatre, an Egyptian Temple for “Magic Flute”, a cave of snakes worked by an elaborate mechanism and a toy shop crammed with detail are some of the best known examples.Schreiber outlived the other publishers, their plays carried on being sold right up to the second world war. In the last few years the firm, which remains an important German publishing house, has reprinted some of the traditional favourites.