This is one of 35 marionettes known as of the Tiller-Clowes troupe, one of the last remaining Victorian marionette troupes in England. Marionette shows were a popular form of entertainment for adults in the 19th century. Many troupes were family concerns which travelled round the country long before the advent of film or television, presenting shortened versions of London's latest popular entertainment including melodramas, dramas, pantomimes, minstrel shows and music hall. In the 18th and early 19th centuries their theatres were relatively makeshift, but after about 1860 many became considerably elaborate, with walls constructed from wooden shutters, seating made from tiered planks of wood, and canvas roofs.
The figures were carved, painted, dressed and performed by members of the company. This is one of two white-faced clowns with articulated mouths who performed a comical drunken stilt-walking speciality act. The clown's feet and calves are attached to his stilts; he has a beer bottle in his right hand, and his left hand is carved closed. The act was very popular in the marionette music hall, and figures like this featured in several different companies.