Hand Puppets

Research: Sasha W

Evidence of puppetry dates back roughly 600 years, potentially further, in Britain. Hand puppets were portable and made them a popular choice with medieval entertainers who may have had to travel. There was evidence of hand puppets dating back to at least Ancient Greece.

A hand puppet usually covers the whole hand, sometimes going further down the arm. The hand enters the interior of the puppet, generally from the base, though larger versions can control just the head while the rest of the body hangs down the arm. Usually the puppet will have a mouth that can be opened and close where the hand will sit, with the fingers in the top half and the thumb in the bottom half, though some variants exist with manipulatable eyelids.

The mouth didn’t move, so it didn’t need to be open. Arthur Quisto made a lot of these traditional puppets, many of which were used in the early 19th century by the Codman family, a famous group of Punch and Judy performers for four generations.

-Heads were hand carved in 1920-30s Britain. The body remained the same, constructed from fabric with enough room to snugly fit the hand and wrist inside, disguising it effectively on the arm.

Around 1950, puppets started to move to TV, with hand puppets like Sooty and Sweep forming a large portion of children’s television. These were made entirely from fabric, though the heads were still solid and the mouths didn’t move.

Traditionally they were made with solid heads and fabric bodies that would’ve covered the arm.

Click the links below for inspiration:

Paul Klee's puppets for his son Felix were inspired by myths and his perception on the world. Only thirty still exist, as most were destroyed during world war two. Klee was incredibly creative with how he made these puppets. He used beef bones, bristles from brushes and the shells of nuts, they are praised for how they reflect artistic development.