[LONDON; DOLLS] Meech’s Royal Exhibition of Mechanical and Wax Figures, 50 & 52, Kennington Road … Complimentary Lenten Order, admitting TWO on Payment for ONE,

To view the magnificent life-size Models in costly costumes of eminent persons, The Automaton Flute Player, with the wonderful mechanical Groupings, Works of Art, and the performances of Professor Burman, the Wizard, (From the Egyptian Hall) whose feats are still the delight and surprise of all. Admission 6d. Working Classes and Children 3d. Open daily from 2 till 4 and 6 till 10. Manager Professor Burman. This Ticket will only be admitted during Lent.’; [London : s.n., 1875]. Admission ticket, 95 x 125 mm, lithograph-printed recto only in black on green paper; upper margin recto with year ‘1875’ inscribed in ink by the original owner, verso with the same date in pencil, and some minor paper adhesions from an old album mount; fine condition.

Herbert John Meech (1833-1916) was a modeller in wax, wax figure maker, doll maker, and entrepreneur, active in London from the late 1840s until around 1911.

‘From about 1851 Meech was well-known maker of poured wax dolls, which were awarded at least six prize medals and a Doll Maker to the Royal Family (based on stamps on the objects themselves). However the fashion for wax dolls declined and their production became too expensive compared to German imports. So on 24 March 1893 Meech filed for bankruptcy. There are some examples of his dolls in the Museum of London collection (based on images on ancestry) and in the Bethnal Green Museum of Childhood.’

‘Herbert John Meech’, Mapping the Practice and Profession of Sculpture in Britain and Ireland 1851-1951, University of Glasgow History of Art and HATII, online database 2011 [https://sculpture.gla.ac.uk/mapping/public/view/person.php?id=ann_1393167958, accessed 13 Jul 2026]