Collezione
Maria Signorelli
Seven trunks of stage properties
(costumes and accessories; sets and wings; string supports, separate parts of puppets and marionettes)
The
Puppets of Maria Signorelli
Fairy tales, nursery rhymes and films
Shows with classical and modern texts, films
The ballets of Maria Signorelli
19th-20th century Italian rod and glove puppets
19th-20th century Italian marionettes
20th century foreign rod and string puppets
Sicilian, Pugliese and Neapolitan puppets
Toy
rod, glove and string puppets
Paper
and card theatres, sets and characters
Scripts
of puppet and marionette plays
Posters
of puppet theatre productions and festivals
There are two trunks of female costumes (skirts, bodices, collars) and male costumes (cloaks, trousers, belts, jerkins) for marionettes, excellently preserved, in silk, velvet, satin, cotton, some finely embroidered (with sequins and jais), of cut and style belonging to various periods.
There is also a trunk of shoes of all types, in valuable materials, and wigs in eighteenth-century style, both male and female. Other chests contain dozens of hats in various materials and styles. Many of these items have never been used.
They were a set of clothes for marionettes dating from the end of the nineteenth century and the beginning of the twentieth, made by specialists according to the usage of the time. Many of the items are probably Italian, and were acquired by Maria Signorelli in the 1960s. Until now it has been difficult to discover their provenance.
Two trunks contain several hundred heads, many of them with hair, glass eyes, and painted, as well as hands, arms and legs.
Another chest is a sort of casket containing minute suits of armour and weapons for marionettes (10 sets of leg armour, 15 helmets with moveable visors, 5 shields, 3 collars, 11 breastplates, 12 epaulettes, 2 scimitars, 26 swords, 2 foils, 2 lances, 2 pikes, 2 daggers, 2 hatchets, 5 rifles, etc), with surfaces of worked metal, coloured gold and silver, often decorated with appliqué and tooling. There are also 5 gold crowns decorated with stones of various colours.
Two large chests contain dozens of stage sets, borders and wings made of paper, paper stretched on a frame, cloth and cardboard from a large number of Italian puppeteers and marionettists.
Another chest contains string supports, most probably from the Piedmont and Lombardy region (simple crosses dating from the twentieth century, antique ones from the nineteenth century, crosses with rounded off handles, and Podrecca string supports).
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