Hand Puppets

Punch and Judy show booth and accessories, 1912-62. Museum no. Misc. 19-1968 (click image for larger version)

Hand (or glove) puppets are generally very simple in construction. The head is usually made of carved wood or papier mache. The features are often exaggerated caricatures so that they can be seen from a distance, whilst the body is a cloth tube which hides the operator's arm. Usually only the upper half of the puppet's body is visible, although sometimes it has a pair of legs that can be swung over so that the puppet appears to be sitting on the playboard. The operator works the puppet from below. They use their forefinger in the head, the thumb and middle (or little) finger in the arms, and often provide a voice for the puppet too. Hand puppet performances were extremely popular in streets and fairground shows in the past.

The most well-known puppet characters in Britain are Punch and Judy. Samuel Pepys, the diarist, records seeing a Punch and Judy show in Covent Garden in 1662. The character of Punch is known by a variety of names in other parts of Europe including Kasperl, Pulcinella and Petrushka. He is frequently belligerent, defiant, rebellious and cunning, often unscrupulous and always irrepressible. Audiences seem to delight in seeing him behave badly and overthrow authority figures, which traditionally include a policeman, a judge, the hangman and the devil. The Museum has a number of examples of hand puppets, including a number of Punch and Judy sets and a booth used between 1912 and 1962.