Clowns Gallery-Museum facts for kids
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| Established | 1959 |
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| Location | Holy Trinity Church, Dalston, England |
| Type | Clowning museum |
The Clowns Gallery-Museum is a special place that collects items related to clowning. It started in 1959. The museum has costumes and props from famous clowns. It also has a library with books about clowns. This museum is also home to the unique Clown Egg Register.
Contents
History of the Clown Museum
The museum's collection is kept in two main places. One is at Holy Trinity Church in Dalston, London. The other was at Wookey Hole in Somerset, England. The museum first opened in Dalston in 1959. In 2007, some of the collection moved to Wookey Hole.
The Dalston museum was located in a part of the Holy Trinity Church. It faced possible closure in 2014 but stayed open. The Wookey Hole museum was managed by Gerry Cottle, who was a vice president of Clowns International. However, the Dalston museum closed in 2019. It needed repairs to be safe for visitors. The collection from Wookey Hole is also currently stored away.
What is the Clown Egg Register?
The Clown Egg Register is a special collection of painted eggs. These eggs are made of ceramic or are real hen's eggs. Each egg shows a clown's unique makeup design. It's like a record book for clown faces!
This tradition began in 1946. A chemist named Stan Bult, who started Clowns International, began drawing clown faces on chicken eggs. The egg collection was created to stop clowns from accidentally or purposely copying each other's makeup. There's an unofficial rule that no two clowns should have the same face paint. The eggs provided a perfect head-shaped model for these designs. At first, real eggs were used. Later, they switched to stronger ceramic eggs. This collection is not open to the public anymore.
The Artists Who Painted the Eggs
Many talented artists have painted the eggs for the Clown Egg Register over the years.
Stan Bult's Original Eggs
Stan Bult himself painted the eggs until 1966. He created about 450 eggs. Since these were real chicken eggs, most of them broke over time. Only 24 of his original eggs are still part of the collection today.
Later Egg Artists
After Stan Bult, Clowns International continued the register.
- Janet Webb painted 76 eggs between 1988 and 1994.
- Kate Stone painted 144 eggs from 1995 to 2009. She also recreated 59 of Stan Bult's eggs using old photographs.
- Debbie Smith took over as the egg artist from 2010 to 2023.
- Julie Proctor became the current egg artist in 2023.
