Magic lantern - Punch and Judy part 1

	PUNCH AND JUDY An attractive moving Magic Lantern slide in a mahogany frame, 7 inches by 4 inches (18 x 10 cm). It features a group of children watching a Punch and Judy show. When the sliding glass is moved, the smoking man is revealed.
Punch and Judy are the hero and heroine of a comical puppet show which originated in the wandering Italian Commedia dell' Arte troupes of the 14th century. Pulcinella, a hook-nosed, cowardly buffoon, was a popular character in the comic plays of these actors. The comedy spread to France and England in the 17th century. There the Pulcinella character merged with British glove puppet traditions to become Punchinello, or Mr. Punch. At the end of the 18th century, lots of local puppet heroes displaced the descendants of Pulcinella throughout Europe. In France it was Guignol, in Germany Kasperl, in the Netherlands Jan Klaassen, in Spain Christovita, in Romania Valicke and so on. Punch acquired a wife, Judy (originally known as Joan); the Dutch call her Katrijn. All these characters are glove puppets; many speak through a squeaker in the mouth of the performer that gives a piercing and inhuman timbre to their voices.

		Punch: "Do you want to hear a story?"
Children: "Yeah!"
		Punch: "I said: Do-you-want-to-hear-a-story?"
Children: "Yeeeeaaaaaahhhhh!"
		Punch: "I can't hear you! I said: DO YOU WANT TO HEAR A STORY?!!!!"
Children: "YEEEEEEAAAA AAHHHHHHHH!!!"
	A complete set of 12 Magic Lantern slides featuring the Punch and Judy story. Standard size 3¼ inch square (8.3 cm). The same series is also produced as a set of four glass strips, each measuring 15.3 cm by 4.5 cm with three pictures on each strip. Left the original box, containing 12 superior English made Lantern Slides 3¼" x 3¼". Right the accompanying reading.



Two large Punch and Judy magic lantern slides, British, c. 1860. These wooden framed glass magic lantern slides measure 12 by 3 inches (30.5 x 8 cm) and are hand painted.


This British glass mechanic magic lantern slide measures 7 by 4 inches (18 x 10 cm). Mr Punch's nose grows as you pull the slipping glass. Right: A projection of this humorous slide on the cover of a catalogue of the Museum of Cinema in Girona, Spain, edited in 1998. The booklet measures 8 1/2" x 10" (21 x 25 cm), 24 pages.

JOY & SORROW. A wonderful vintage pair of dissolving views, marked '52-a JOY' and '52-b SORROW', c. 1880. Great views of a little girl with a nice Punch puppet, and a Punch puppet with his nose broken! Each wooden frame measures 7" x 4" (18 x 10 cm).

A rare hand painted slide in a mahogany frame measuring 7" by 5 ½ " (18 x 14 cm), c. 1860.	Hand painted slipping slide in a wooden frame. The slide measures 7" wide by 4" high (18 x 10 cm).
	More Punch and Judy....