The Late Ron Wells collection (Lots 2001-2013), a much loved...

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The Late Ron Wells collection (Lots 2001-2013), a much loved family collection of puppets, accessories and ephemera relating to Joy Laurey and the Jonathan Laurey Marionette Company (Members of the British Puppet Guild), reputedly from the estate of Joy Laurey. The collection is believed to have been obtained and curated in the late 1990’s when it is thought that Joy Laurey auctioned off part of her collection locally in Essex after she moved from her home in Tiptree, Essex. A good part of this collection was previously on display at the Goldhanger Agricultural and Domestic museum in Essex.

Dorrie Laurey was the granddaughter of the famous Drury Lane clown Sam Laurey, her daughter Joy Laurey (Joy Dorothy Luczyc-Wyhowski) was born on the 30th April 1924. In 1936 Dorrie Laurey became interested in puppets and by 1938 she founded the Laurey Puppet Company. Joy started her professional career with E.N.S.A. and championed the national spirit during World War II, she, her sister and mother entertained troops with puppet shows, they travelled over 75,000 miles and during their travels they joined a secret operation to perform on HMS Bulldog shortly after the liberation of Guernsey. A skilful wood carver, she made many of the puppets in addition to being the chief manipulator.

The Laurey Puppet Company went on to have a large repertoire of shows which they played throughout the country. Playing to a wide variety of audiences they entertained the Lord Mayor of London in the Mansion House and holiday makers in various seaside resorts. They went on to make several films, undertaking extensive variety tours and appeared in cabaret. In the 1950’s Joy Laurey was offered a once in a lifetime opportunity to make a puppet for a one-off television show called Whirligig. She produced a puppet based on a vegetable and called it “Mr Turnip”. The pilot show was an instant success and the show ran for over six years. After the success of Mr Turnip from the Whirligig series, Joy was commissioned to make a puppet called Twizzle for A.P. films which was produced by Gerry Anderson.

Sadly after a lifetime of entertaining a nation and pioneering the art of puppeteering, Joy passed away on the 2nd June 2014, aged 90.