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Title(s):
[Transforming head : putto, maid, nun, vicar, sheik].
Published/Created:
[Great Britain], [circa 1830]
Physical Description:
5 drawings : watercolor ; 190 x 208 mm, folded to 65 x 72 mm
Holdings:
Rare Books and Manuscripts
GV1229. T73 1830b+ Oversize
Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Fund
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Copyright Status:
Copyright Not Evaluated
Classification:
Drawings & Watercolors
Notes:
BAC: British Art Center copy housed with a second original transforming head. Provenance: Paul Anstee.
Multi-flapped visual device in which a single face may be adorned in one of five guises. The cross-shaped sheet comprises five panels, each of which bears a figure drawn in watercolor; each of the four square-shaped arms may in turn fold over the central square panel. The central panel features the face of a winged (and bodyless) putto. Each of the four flaps, when folded over the center panel, depicts a different character (maid, nun, vicar, sheik) with a cut-out window in place of the eyes (or entire face) so that the face of the original putto shows through, but adorned in different dress and headgear.
There is also a simple cut pocket crafted into the base of the central panel (depicting the putto). Into this pocket is inserted a small slip of paper inscribed, in pen and black, ink: "The Genuine Court Plaister, London." The reverse of the central panel is reinforced with a sheet of green marbled paper, bordered in gold.
Subject Terms:
Amusements -- Great Britain.
Anstee, Paul -- Provenance.
Court-plaster.
Great Britain -- Social life and customs.
Form/Genre:
Watercolors.
Overlays.
Moveable books.
Metamorphic pictures.
Recreations -- Great Britain.
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