Theatrical penny plain and twopence coloured additional portraits
Overview
Hand-colored and uncolored "penny plain" and "twopence coloured" theatrical portrait character prints.
Dates
- Creation: 1810-1848
Language of Materials
Collection materials are in English.
Conditions Governing Access
There are no restrictions on physical access to this material. Collection is open for research.
Extent
3 linear feet (7 boxes)This collection contains hand-colored and uncolored theatrical portrait engravings depicting portrait images of actors. Some are black and white and some are hand-colored, almost all were printed in London. Publishing firms include: William West, A. Park, Jameson, Skelt, J. Fairburn, Hodgson & Co., and many others. Actors depicted include T. P. Cooke, Andrew Ducrow, Edward Gomersal, Charles Kean, Edmund Kean, among others.
Biographical / Historical
Prints known as "penny plains" and "twopence coloureds" were collected and often used in toy theaters during the first half of the 19th-century. The names of the prints originated from the prices each cost to purchase in English coin. The images are portraits of actors depicted as principal characters with scenery of the then current plays. These characters could be cut-out, mounted on pasteboard, attached to sticks and used as performers in toy theatres. Often performing scripts written especially for children to be used with these materials. The Twopence coloureds were purchased already coloured-in by the publisher. Toy theatres were especially popular as English children's toys in the first half of the 19th-century, but by the late 19th-century popularity waned and publishing of these materials declined.
Arrangement
Organized into the following series:
- I. Character prints, by name of actor depicted
- II. Character prints, by publisher
- III. Character prints, unidentified
- IV. Character prints, oversized
- ___A. Character prints, oversized: by name
- ___B. Character prints, oversized: by title
Physical Location
b
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Various donors, various dates. See items for accession information, if known.
Processing Information
Processed by: Bonnie B. Salt
- Title
- Theatrical penny plain and twopence coloured additional portraits, 1810-1848: Guide.
- Author
- Houghton Library, Harvard College Library
- Description rules
- dacs
- Language of description
- und
- EAD ID
- hou02400
Repository Details
Part of the Houghton Library Repository
Houghton Library is Harvard College's principal repository for rare books and manuscripts, archives, and more. Houghton Library's collections represent the scope of human experience from ancient Egypt to twenty-first century Cambridge. With strengths primarily in North American and European history, literature, and culture, collections range in media from printed books and handwritten manuscripts to maps, drawings and paintings, prints, posters, photographs, film and audio recordings, and digital media, as well as costumes, theater props, and a wide range of other objects. Houghton Library has historically focused on collecting the written record of European and Eurocentric North American culture, yet it holds a large and diverse number of primary sources valuable for research on the languages, culture and history of indigenous peoples of the Americas, Africa, Asia and Oceania.
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