PENNY PLAIN.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue 49, 27 February 1937, Page 1 (Supplement)

PENNY PLAIN.

l» } v of mor »': it appears that ]{. ollock. late .f. Redinjrton, \o 7;j n,, x ton Street. not only polish,.* V, these old sta-re favouring, but owns the necossaiv plates a.„I displays a modes, readiness to ,ss„e other :t:t. If v „„ , l)Vr ait, folly, or the bright eyes of Hiildren s[M-e<| to Pollock's, or to ( larkeV. of .arr.ek street." These words fro,,. I! I- Stover,son's essay. " A Penny J>U in and Iwopen.e < oloured." whir), originally appeared in Henley's Art" in 1881. and were reprinted in ".Memories arid Portraits." „,a v strike a familiar chord in the minds of manv readers, since few of Steven*,in'* essay's have been more widely read; lint some may Im> surprised to learn that this same B. Pollock, publisher of plain and coloured sheets for toy theatres (on,-,, dignified by the name of juvenile drama i, Mollis to the present and not to the pasl (-ay* "The Listener" i. He took over the business of .1. in 1877 and made it hi- lif,. work."and recently lie celebrated his eightieth birthday. What charm and delicious fragrance of the past surround Mr. lien jam in Pollock's chosen profession! A hundred years ago nearly .">0 firm* were enframed in the manufacture and distribution of sheets to l>e used on tlx- toy stapes of the juvenile drama, at that time amnii« t'ne rn(»st popular playthings of the intelligent child. Some of the sheets displayed scenes and background*. others had sets of characters, to be cut out. mounted on cardboard and moved on to the stage with the help of tin slides; all could lie painted at will by the child who bought the plain edition instead of the already coloured. the nineteenth ccntii'v ;nl winced the juvenile drama declined. Now it ichiefly the joy of collectors and connoisseurs.