WAXWORKS

Dominion, Volume 24, Issue 144, 14 March 1931, Page 21

WAXWORKS

Many of you have seen exhibitions of wax figures, but the small collection of famous people in wax which is kept in the Islip Chapel of Westminster Abbey is not very well known. There are only eleven of them left now. these wax models of some of the kings and nobles who are buried in the Abbey. An Old Entertainment. Many, too, were badly damaged by the Roundheads, and all that is left of these lies in another part of the Abbey milt!

and is not shown to the public. Wax figures were used in funeral processions by the early Egyptians and by the Romans. It was over two hundred years ago that the first exhibition of waxworks as a shew or entertainment appeared. The “Ragged Regiment." When Queen Elizabeth died, an effigy was made of her in wax, dressed in rich clothes, and was carried in state in her funeral procession, and afterwards kept in the Abbey. A Duchess of Richmond is there, too, in wax, with the stuffed remains of her pet parrot. Sometimes the models would be made entirely of wax, and sometimes of wood with waxen heads and hands. Several of the figures suffered so badly from the sun, which melted the wax and faded the colours of the costumes, that at one time they' were known as the “Ragged' Regiment.” Madame Tassaud. The most famous modern waxwork show is that of Madame Tassaud. in London. This lady, who died in 1850. helped her uncle in Paris to model wax figures, and when the Drench Revolution broke out she came to London and started an exhibition there. , . In time it grew to be famous throughout the world, and is now carried on by members of Madame Tussaud’s family.