Sunday, October 28, 2012

The Art of Play: A Chinese Shadow Puppet, late 19th C.

Shadow Puppet
China, Late Nineteenth Century
The Victoria & Albert Museum


Shadow puppets are neat. But, then, I’m a puppet fancier, so I suppose I’d be inclined to think so. This one comes from China and dates to the late Nineteenth Century. It’s a tiger! He’s got very handsome tiger striped and a feline face—all hand painted.

This tiger is made up of eight individual pieces which are joined with twine at the head, neck, body, waist and tail. These moveable joints allow the puppet to be manipulated in realistic-looking way. Rods at the head and tail are used to move the joints. He’s composed of oil parchment and painted with watercolor.



1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Hi, I am not a puppeteer and have no real interest in puppets, but I have a puppet just like this that someone gave me years ago, and I have not seen any others like it. I am trying to find a value on it. I simply have it in a nice frame and have had it hanging on my wall. Any idea where I can get a value on it?