{"meta":{"version":"2.1","_links":{"self":{"href":"https://api.vam.ac.uk/v2/object/O1363811"},"collection_page":{"href":"https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O1363811/"}},"images":{"_primary_thumbnail":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2016JK6729/full/!100,100/0/default.jpg","_iiif_image":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2016JK6729/","_alt_iiif_image":[],"imageResolution":"low","_images_meta":[{"assetRef":"2016JK6729","copyright":"©Victoria & Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false}]},"see_also":null},"record":{"systemNumber":"O1363811","accessionNumber":"S.608-2016","objectType":"Puppet","titles":[{"title":"Marionette of a female Thai dancer","type":"generic title"}],"summaryDescription":"This Thai dancer is one of the many superbly crafted marionettes created by Frank Mumford and used by him and his wife Maisie with their company, the Mumford Puppets. It is illustrated on a poster in the collection for Hamburg's Hansa Theatre, where Frank Mumford performed with it in 1979.\n\nFrank Mumford was born in North London in July 1918 and created his first puppet theatre aged six while ill in bed. At the age of 11 he entered a schoolboy craft contest at London's Alexandra  Palace and won first prize, along with an apprenticeship at Edmonds of Wood Green to learn window display where he created a puppet troupe and performed afternoon shows and a Christmas show. Originally billed as 'Master Mum ford and his Marionettes', he played the Wood Green Empire aged 24. It was partly thorough the British Puppet and Model Theatre Guild that he made contact with other puppeteers. He became a tea boy at the Lanchester puppet theatre and, with other puppeteers and his future wife Maisie Tierney, formed his first puppet company that performed in London theatres including the Players' Theatre, the Grove, the Gate, Kew, Little, the Arts, 20th Century and the Grafton amongst others.  The company disbanded due to war in 1939 when Frank served in the 16th Parachute Surgical Team Field Ambulance. He was taken prisoner in Arnhem in 1944 and returned to the UK in 1945. Shortly afterwards he was transferred to the Central Pool of Artists and put together the two-hour touring show <i>Stars on Strings</i> for the Army and Navy Air Force's Stars in Battledress organisation. The show toured air bases for six months, manned by 11 staff with a large cast of puppets, until Frank was demobbed in 1946 and the show was converted into a commercial enterprise. The Mumford Puppets, featuring Frank, Maisie and occasionally other operators, played their first performance in Littlehampton in 1946.\r\n\r\nSince large-scale shows were expensive to tour, the Mumfords created shorter acts with larger puppets, designing and building practically everything themselves including their stage costumes. The result was a slick, glamorous, fast-paced international cabaret act  that they continued to perform for audiences all over the world until Maisie's death in 1985. They regularly played top London nightclubs including the Coconut Grove, Churchill's, Governor House, Ciros, the Embassy, Dorchester and the Savoy Hotels, and the Starlight Room,. This led to engagements abroad - a three-month contract in 1949 in a revue at Le Boeuf Sur le Toit in Paris; and performances for the Duke and Duchess of Windsor; Prince Rainier and Grace Kelly, for Madame and General Franco, and for the Sultan of Oman. The Mumford Puppets appeared on television, and after Maisie's death in 1985 Frank continued to perform, giving his last show at the Leeds Variety Theatre in 2004, aged 86.\n\n","physicalDescription":"Carved and painted marionette of a female Thai dancer with a gold painted face with red painted mouth, hollow eyes and sequin eyelid decoration. She wears an intricately decorated metallic gold stiffened headdress set with beads, sequins and plastic gems and edged with gold braid and red pipe-cleaner trim. Her trousers and arms are of gold sequined fabric, and her midriff-length top is decorated with sequins and plastic gems on a metallic lace fabric. The train of her costume is decorated with vintage gold silk tassels. Her neck and midriff are covered in stockinette fabric and she has painted, crushed brown rubber feet, most probably a temporary replacement for the original carved woden feet.\r\n\r\nShe is controlled by head strings, hand strings and knee strings attached to crossed wooden control bars.\r\n ","artistMakerPerson":[{"name":{"text":"Mumford, Frank","id":"AUTH340388"},"association":{"text":"makers","id":"AAT251917"},"note":""}],"artistMakerOrganisations":[{"name":{"text":"Mumford Puppets","id":"AUTH342198"},"association":{"text":"performers","id":"x44973"},"note":""}],"artistMakerPeople":[],"materials":[{"text":"wood","id":"AAT11914"},{"text":"fabric","id":"AAT162391"}],"techniques":[{"text":"carving","id":"AAT53149"},{"text":"painting","id":"x30598"},{"text":"sewing","id":"AAT53658"}],"materialsAndTechniques":"Hand-carved wood with thread, fishing line, rubber, mixed fabrics, braid, sequins, bead, and gems ","categories":[{"text":"Puppetry","id":"THES266219"},{"text":"Entertainment & Leisure","id":"THES48959"},{"text":"Dance","id":"THES252984"},{"text":"Cabaret","id":"THES274470"},{"text":"Variety","id":"THES269955"}],"styles":[],"collectionCode":{"text":"T&P","id":"THES48602"},"images":["2016JK6729"],"imageResolution":"low","galleryLocations":[{"current":{"text":"005","id":"THES345703"},"free":"","case":"","shelf":"","box":""}],"partTypes":[[{"text":"marionette","id":"AAT211126"}]],"contentWarnings":[{"apprise":"","note":""}],"placesOfOrigin":[{"place":{"text":"London","id":"x28980"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":""}],"productionDates":[{"date":{"text":"ca.1950","earliest":"1945-01-01","latest":"1954-12-31"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":""}],"associatedObjects":[{"object":{"text":"S.609-2016","id":"O1363812"},"association":"Object"},{"object":{"text":"S.603-2016","id":"O1363806"},"association":"Object"},{"object":{"text":"S.604-2016","id":"O1363807"},"association":"Object"},{"object":{"text":"S.607-2016","id":"O1363810"},"association":"Object"},{"object":{"text":"S.65-2019","id":"O1592946"},"association":"Object"}],"creditLine":"Given by Jennifer Allen","dimensions":[{"dimension":"Height","value":"110","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"sole of foot to top of head dress","note":""},{"dimension":"Width","value":"90","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"fingertip to fingertip with arms outstretched","note":""}],"dimensionsNote":"","marksAndInscriptions":[],"objectHistory":"","historicalContext":"","briefDescription":"Marionette of a female Thai dancer. Made and operated by Frank Mumford (1918-2014) with his troupe the Mumford Puppets\r\n","bibliographicReferences":[],"production":"","productionType":{"text":"","id":""},"contentDescription":"","contentPlaces":[],"associatedPlaces":[],"contentPerson":[],"associatedPerson":[{"text":"Mumford, Frank","id":"AUTH340388"}],"contentOrganisations":[],"associatedOrganisations":[{"text":"Mumford Puppets","id":"AUTH342198"}],"contentPeople":[],"associatedPeople":[],"contentEvents":[],"associatedEvents":[],"contentOthers":[],"contentConcepts":[],"contentLiteraryRefs":[],"galleryLabels":[],"partNumbers":["S.608-2016"],"accessionNumberNum":"608","accessionNumberPrefix":"S","accessionYear":2016,"otherNumbers":[],"copyNumber":"","aspects":["WHOLE"],"assets":[],"recordModificationDate":"2025-04-05","recordCreationDate":"2016-08-08","availableToBook":true}}