I was contacted by a Lynn Hoskins to do a restoration on a ventriloquist figure. When he sent pictures of the figure, at the time I couldn’t decide who the maker was. It kind of had a Marshallesque look to it, but the leather upper lip and lower jaw kind of threw me.
I asked my partner Dan if he has any ideas. He said it did have a Marshallesque look to it, but he thought it might be a Pinxy because he also copied Marshall in some of his techniques.
When Lynn first contacted me, he said one of the eyes was busted and there was a small tear in the leather on the chin. I told him I would be happy to restore it for him.
I asked him what he planned on doing with the figure and he stated that it had been his Dad’s figure. His Dad had performed in the service with “Archie”. Lynn stated he wanted to use “Archie” in his business by doing some training and performing.
When I received Archie, I started taking him apart to see if I could figure out who the maker was. I knew that Pinxy usually put his name on the bottom of the neck.
However, when I took the head out of the body and check the bottom of the neck….no Pinxy. At this point, I started to get excited thinking this may be a Marshall and preceded to take the head apart.
Once I had the head apart, I was surprised to see “Pinxy” carved in the back of the head. Dan was right….so I called him immediately to tell him the news and ask if he had every seen or heard of Pinxy carving his name in the back of the head, to which he said no.
After I started going through Archie seeing the condition he was in, I contacted Lynn and told him that if he really wanted to perform with Archie, he was in dire need of a paint job. The paint had faded to a very pale looking face over the years. Lynn agreed.
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Steve, thanks for sharing this Pinxy restoration with us.
Dan
www.ventriloquistcentral.com
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Dan Willinger is a ventriloquism enthusiast and ventriloquist figure collector. He has been collecting for over 25 years. He created the Ventriloquist Central Collection. It now has over 100 ventriloquist figures and over 50 of them are Frank Marshall figures. Because of his love for the art of ventriloquism, Mr. Willinger created the website Ventriloquist Central. For more information about the website, go to: http://www.ventriloquistcentral.com
Copyright 2010 by Dan Willinger
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