Comments on: Toy Theatres In Old St

By: Deborah Brown

Deborah Brown — Tue, 06 Oct 2020 08:59:47 +0000

Dear Gentle Author, I’m a Trustee of Pollocks and former curator, and very much enjoyed reading your article.
Currently I’m working with the museum collections and staff to upgrade information, and develop new ways of interpreting the toy theatre and related stories.- the next project is to make a short film about Mr Pollock and other publishers with visits to locations , mixed with prints and interviews etc.

I remember Hetty Startup very well, and would love to make contact and talk to her again. I wonder if you could either give me her email- or else pass mine onto her ?
With thanks, Debby Brown

By: Sheila O'Connell

Sheila O'Connell — Mon, 27 Jul 2020 20:53:50 +0000

Horatio Blood and his troupe still perform juvenile dramas from time to time. Watch out for them. Usually in the Greenwich area, although they did “The Battle of Waterloo” at the British Museum in 2015!

By: Jacqui

Jacqui — Sat, 04 Jan 2020 20:50:11 +0000

Synchronicity! I’ve always wanted a toy theatre & I’ve just started searching for one . . .

By: Saba

Saba — Sat, 04 Jan 2020 18:19:25 +0000

I just re-re-read The Marvels, a must for anyone who regularly reads this blog. I imagined the theater figures as a continuation of the novel!

By: Saba

Saba — Sat, 04 Jan 2020 18:16:35 +0000

The figure to the left, as you face the computer screen, of the title line for the Sleeping Beauty color sheet is taken from an illustration in a book on the Sir Walter Raleigh-financed exploratory trip to Guyana. The figure, which is considered severely racist in our own time, depicts a race of people that Sir Walter Raleigh said the explorers found in Guyana. Apparently, Raleigh took his description from ancient Greek portrayals of Africans, again disturbingly racist.

By: Pamela Traves

Pamela Traves — Sat, 04 Jan 2020 11:57:47 +0000

I’d Love to see the real dolls. I find many Vintage dolls on the internet to print as they are to expensive to buy. ????????

By: Lynne Perrella

Lynne Perrella — Sat, 04 Jan 2020 11:25:18 +0000

This is a “heavy breathing” topic for me, and I’m thrilled to see a post about it in the New Year.
(and so enjoyed reading the comment about the “Christmas windows at Selfridges featuring pantomimes done in that style”!!! ) I feel like I have been “down the rabbit hole” of paper theaters for decades; connecting to the history/backstory, then attempting to make my own versions, and then it all went dormant for a while. One may crop up in a scene in a film, and I’m aflame again. The fervor never really goes away. We visited Pollocks in the early 70s, and came home with sheets and sheets of “makings”; then I discovered the exquisite collection at the International Museum of Folk Art in Santa Fe, New Mexico — and on and on. And my personal art library has a dedicated section of books and articles gathered over years, and luckily my artist friends “feed the addiction”. For me, it is just an eternal fascination, on levels impossible to describe.
Author Jack Kerouac once said: “Something that you feel will find its own form”. Huzzah and hurrah for this post on a beloved topic!

By: Jill Wilson

Jill Wilson — Sat, 04 Jan 2020 10:06:15 +0000

I didn’t play with toy theatre as a child but I fell in love with them when I was a student and was introduced to Pollock’s Toy Theatre shop by an inspirational design tutor. By that time the shop was in it’s present location in Fitzrovia and it is still worth a visit.

I love how decorative and detailed the toy theatres are and several year later I designed the Christmas windows at Selfridges featuring pantomimes done in that style. They were opened by Lady Donaldson who was the first lady Lord Mayor of London, and she was of course particularly interested in the Dick Whittington window!

By: Dhru Patel

Dhru Patel — Sat, 04 Jan 2020 09:55:46 +0000

Just wanted to share this in case you had not seen it…

Watch Penny Plain – Twopence Coloured: The Romance of the Model Theatre online – BFI Player (free to watch):

https://player.bfi.org.uk/free/film/watch-penny-plain-twopence-coloured-the-romance-of-the-model-theatre-1928-online

By: Hetty Startup

Hetty Startup — Sat, 04 Jan 2020 09:25:15 +0000

While not an only child, I enjoyed playing with my Pollock’s toy theatre and gathered family members to help construct it (my Dad helped me make it sturdy so that it existed for many decades afterwards) and perform plays. The quality of the art really appealed to me. We bought more plays at the shop. As a teenager, I worked on Saturdays at the shop on Scala St where we performed plays for people visiting the museum; there was also a shop there where you could buy ‘Dutch’ dolls and paper theater kits….it was really magical and wonderful although Webb’s importance was downplayed (perhaps not intentionally.) Thank you for a wonderful report. I am now going to read the related one on Christopher Smart as I just took part in a recital of Benjamin Britten’s Rejoice in the Lamb that features his libretto.