Description:Marionette prototype of male figure. Unpainted, undressed but with large facial features. Made by Werner Jackson, who carved figures for the well-known puppeteer, Waldo Lanchester.
Werner Jackson was a Jewish refugee, who had to leave Germany in the mid-1930s and was given a home in England by the Lanchesters.
Although established as a wood-carver and photographer, Werner had no previous experience as a puppet maker, but under Waldo's tuition, quickly became a fine craftsman and produced a number of marionettes for the Lanchester Marionette Theatre during the war years. Several of his figures are in the Bauhaus Museum in Germany.
This marionette forms part of the Hayward Puppet Collection, now part of the Staffordshire County Museum collection.