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Czech Puppets
Czech Puppets and Marionettes Are the Perfect Czech Souvenirs

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Czech Puppet

Jan Van den Meerssche 2004

The Czech Republic has a long history of puppetry, puppet-making, and marionettes. Czech puppets have been a part of Czech tradition since the middle of the 18th century. At that point in time, Czech puppeteers roamed Central Europe to tell stories and entertain crowds. It was at the end of the 18th century and the beginning of the 19th century that Czech puppet-making and puppetry developed into a revered art form; care and detail were put into the faces of Czech puppets created during the Baroque period, bringing Czech puppetry to new levels of sophistication.

Puppets, carved from wood, were given the most expression-free faces possible. It was the puppeteer's job to infuse life and feeling into the puppet by manipulating the puppet's movement and timing.

Family Tradition of Czech Puppetry
Puppeteers passed their skills to their offspring, securing puppetry in the Czech Republic as a form of family-run business and a patriotic art form. Not only was puppetry taught and were puppet theater scripts passed from father to son, but the puppets themselves were handed down through generations. Puppets or marionettes from the 1800's will bear significant price tags, as this might be considered Czech puppetry's "golden age," and surviving examples of Baroque-era puppets are rare.

While the strong family tradition of puppetry might have witnessed decline in the 19th century, it also underwent revival in the 20th century, when puppet theaters were established. Puppet theater, which was shown indifference by the country's censors, was used for political dissent; in this way, some puppeteers became national heroes or "revolutionaries."