The Richard Bebb Collection in the Garrick Club: A Catalogue of Figures, Sculptors and Paintings

Richard Bebb, a professional actor for over fifty years, has built up a collection of one hundred and thirty-two theatrical figures, twenty-five pieces of sculpture and twenty-two paintings, watercolours, miniatures and wax reliefs which he has presented to the Garrick Club as a significant addition to its famous collection of paintings and theatre memorabilia. Though the Bebb figures consist predominantly of Staffordshire pottery - of which there are fifty-four examples - there is also ware from Derby, Royal Doulton and Worcester, Foreign factories are represented by royal Copenhagen, Sevres, Samson and Paris and Goebel. Exceptional is the group of seventeen figures of characters in Nigel Playfair's famous production of the Beggar's Opera that opened at the Lyric Theatre, Hammersmith in 1920. The characters are presented in the costumes that were designed by Claude Lovat Fraser. An index of Image Makers provides useful information about the various modellers, manufacturers and sculptors and there is also an Index of Plays and a Bibliography. KALMAN A. BURNIM is Fletcher Professor of Drama Emeritus, Tufts University; ANDREW WILTON is Keeper of the British Collection at Tate Britain.