by Chris » 01 Apr 2007, 22:35
Sorry, I understood you to say: "Traditionally, of course, they used to tack thin leather to the wooden heads to limit the damage."
Now I realise you mean that one person speaks of adding features, cheeks and lips, with leather to a wooden head. I thought it curious that in all the Victorian puppets that I have handled none have had leather covered heads, for if it were traditional one would have expected the odd one to come my way.
I have seen leather used to reinforce puppet garments, and of course it frequently is used for hinges on the limbs of old English marionettes. I am sure it will have been used as a skin on the occasional head, but hardly sufficiently frequently to be called traditional?
Yes, the Leach book, Punch & Judy Show: History, Tradition & Meaning, while controversial, some would say fanciful, is one of the standards.
In answer to Morris's original question, yes I do know of others who use cloth heads , and with a variety of techniques - but for puppets other than Punch figures. The wooden head (or something similarly hard) is surely essential if one wants the satisfying thwack from the slapstick. Although I have seen Victorian figures where the Punch heads were virtually a mask of carved wood with the back part of the head being stuffed cloth covered by the puppet's hair or head covering. This may have been for lightness, but I have always assumed that it was because the head had been carved from whatever wood was available, and what had been available wasn't thick enough for a full head, front to back, to be carved.
It's good to squawk!