Summary

Hand made marionette depicting a large clown. It was manufactured and operated in Melbourne by Alex and Murray Smith, who performed as part of Le Forgeron Marionettes from 1930 until 1956.

Physical Description

Marionette depicting a large clown, who is wearing a jumpsuit which is green down one side and orange down the other and has a white ruffled collar. He has three pieces of black fluff (like a pompom) down his middle and two on each calf. The fabric is gathered at the end of each limb, but the stitching has come undone on both the green ankle and wrist. His legs are painted white and he has brown painted shoes. There are some holes in his felt soles. The clown's body is very padded and he has been flattened during storage to his is particularly wide. There are some small holes in the fabric. The face is in relatively good condition with no serious chipping, just some fading and cracking of the paintwork. He has plastic blue eyes. The clown is starting to lose some of his hair though. He wears a cream felt hat with stripes sown through it. The hat is pinned to his head with pink dressmaker pins. He has a mechanism. There are operating strings attached to numerous parts of him, including his head, limbs and shoulders. The feet have been weighted.

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