Hand Held
Accessories
by Judith Lile and Jim Sneed
The Schoenhut Hand Held Accessories These accessories were used by the Humpty Dumpty circus performers as part of their acts. |
|
|
Hoop The hoop is used for the wide animal acts for the lions and tigers to jump through. The hoop came in a regular and reduced size. The reduced hoop is red with no white wraps.
|
Whips The yellow whip on the left is a reduced size. The center whip is a regular size with a rounded handle and the dark red whip on the right is a regular size with a flattened handle. The whips made for the clown in the chariot will have a small hole through it about one inch from the handle. |
|
Need photo of parasol) Parasol Parasols are shown in Schoenhut's catalogs but we have not seen a parasol that we could positively identify as having bee sold as a Schoenhut circus item. Schoenhut likely bought their supply from Japan.
|
|
|
Cane The cane is usually illustrated with a ribbon tied around it. Ocassionally a cane is found with its ribbon but much more often not. Early illustrations of canes show them as being straight with a ball tip. We have seen photos of this cane. Below is the first curved cane with its ribbon still attached.
|
Spinning Bowl The spinning bowl is a popular accessory for the Chinese acrobats. This is a rare accessory especially with its original stick and holding tub.
|
|
American Flag The American flag was used to decorate the reduced tent, as a stand alone (shown here), and as a hand-held accessory for performers.
|
Bottle The bottle in the circus was used for balancing acts. It also appears in Teddy Roosevelt as a table item. The label reads "HUMPTY DUMPTY EXTRA DRY".
|
|
Wheelbarrow Wheelbarrows can be red or blue. They were first made for the farm sets but are a good prop for the circus clowns.
|
(Need photo of balancing rod)
Balancing Rod The balancing rod is an accessory, mainly for the high wire walkers.
|
