Case Two

Case 2: William West and Early Toy Theatre Sheets

Haberdasher William West was the first and most prolific of the toy theatre publishers, with his earliest sheets dated 1811. He produced children’s lottery prints—a form of collectible print of named characters and objects—using scenes from pantomimes, and their popularity convinced him to create more prints featuring characters from theatrical productions. He quickly needed three presses to keep up with demand for these prints, and customers soon asked him to produce theatres and scenery.

______

11. Characters in The Beehive. London? William West? 18–?

Desmond Seaton-Reid, who originally assembled the Fisher’s toy theatre collection, believed that this was one of the earliest theatrical sheets issued by William West. In the same style as the popular children’s lottery prints, simple, flat characters are depicted in boxes with text below.

______

12. The Pantomimical Ballet of Don Juan as Performed at the Theatres Royal. London: William West, 1811.

______

13. Principal Characters in the New Harlequinade Called Jack and Jill. London: W. West, 1812.

Pantomimes were popular subjects of early toy theatre sheets. With roots in the Italian commedia dell’arte and subjects often drawn from myth or fairy tale, pantomimes at this time always featured the Harlequin character. Early toy theatre sheets often included the date and location of the performance along with the names of each actor and the character they played, making them valuable for the study of theatre history.

______

14. Aladdin, or The Wonderful Lamp. London: M. Hebberd, 1814. ©The Trustees of the British Museum.

Little is known about Mrs. Hebberd, one of only two female toy theatre publishers, who was publishing as early as 1811 out of her circulating library. This sheet is a reproduction of one held by the British Museum.

______

15. Coloured and plain sheets from ‘Harlequin Brilliant’. London: W. West, 1815.

‘Penny plain, tuppence coloured’ is another name for the toy theatre because sheets could be bought plain or coloured for different prices. Though colouring was arguably the most enjoyable part of the pastime for young people, skilful colourists with special mixtures of paint that might include secret ingredients such as sugar or beer achieved a brilliance and precision that was difficult for the amateur to match.

______

16. Redington’s Characters and Scenes in Baron Munchausen. London: J. Redington, after 1850.

Often, it was families that coloured toy theatre sheets. Working from an example, each person might apply a single colour before passing the sheet along, and a remarkable range of tones were achieved with only a few primary colours. Done by candlelight, their work could be extremely complex; this sheet has ten different shades and needed 127 brush strokes to complete. Later, stencils were used to speed up colouring.

As a cheeky self-promotion, the clown in this sheet holds a sign advertising Redington’s own shop.

______

17. Orchestra and set pieces from West’s toy theatre. London: William West, no date.

Set and stage pieces such as backdrops, wings, proscenia, orchestras, and boxes were not printed until some time after character sheets were available. William West produced stage fronts in 1812 and theatres in 1813, and complete plays including characters, scripts, and set pieces were not available until 1835.

______

18. John Leech. Young Troublesome, or Master Jacky's Holidays. London: Bradbury & Evans, 1850.

In this story, Jacky is gifted the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, in miniature, along with the sheets for The Miller and His Men. He and his family sit together colouring the sheets in preparation for a performance.

______

19. Undated Cavendish Theatre programme for ‘The Forest of Bondy’.

Colouring, cutting out, and mounting characters and coordinating the staging of a play required a focus and investment of time that not every young person could manage. Many who wrote about the toy theatre as adults claimed that all the fun was in the play’s preparation and none in the performance.

This unfinished programme may represent the loss of creative momentum or interest in the production of The Forest of Bondy.

______

20. Albert Smith. The Struggles and Adventures of Christopher Tadpole at Home and Abroad. London: Richard Bentley, 1848.

Toy theatres and accessories could be bought at printers’ and stationers’ shops, but also in many other locations. This illustration by John Leech shows a theatre and portraits for sale at a lending library and general store.

______

Listen to Audio Guide here: