This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 6/29/2019
Sylvester, Servais. Servais Sylvester Punch and Judy Puppets Touring Trunk. Circa 1890s/1920s. Metal and wooden steamer trunk (24 x 26 x 21”) lettered on the lid with Sylvester’s name, and filled with marionettes, Punch and Judy glove puppets, and shadowgraphy figures made by Sylvester, plus related supplies, unfinished figures, and several pieces of ephemera. Includes over 20 folk art style marionettes and hand puppets, figures and characters including Skeleton (one a “break-away” marionette, whose bones may be pulled apart then reattach, and two glove figures, the latter with prop coffins), Crocodile, Horse, Jim Crow/Minstrel (one marionette, two glove), Donkey, Devil (2), Baby, and other lesser seen figures (size of largest 30”). Also includes Sylvester’s collapsing top hat (well worn), small box of shadowgraphy forms, noisemakers, and accessories, a green performance curtain, a Sylvester business card, advertising card, and press booklet for Churchill’s Philadelphia Entertainment Bureau. The underside of the lid bears clipped and pasted programs, letterheads, and advertisements of famous magicians of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, including Houdini, Sears, De Kolta, Sylvester, Ducrot, and others. A wonderful, well-kept collection.