Silk playbill for Puppet Theatre, advertising Mrs. Rebecqui's Benefit Night for a performance by J. Rebecqui's New Italian and English Fantoccini, featuring La Naissance d'Arlequin; Blue Beard, and a Grand Turkish Procession, 19th November 1799 at the Great Room, Holywell, Oxford. Letterpress on silk, published by R. Slatter, Oxford. George Speaight Punch & Judy Collection. This silk playbill advertised Mrs. Rebecqui's Benefit night of J. Rebecqui's New Italian and English Fantoccini on Tuesday 19th November 1799 at the Great Room, Holywell, Oxford. The evening featured La Naissance D'Arlequin or The Birth of Harlequin, including 'the great mechanical figure and the hanging and drinking Harlequin'; the 'Turkish' opera by George Colman Blue Beard, or Female Curiosity composed by Michael Kelly, the first act of which featured A Grand Turkish Procession culminating with the 'nuptials' of Abolemique and Fatima. Signor Rebecqui was an Italian puppeteer who we know performed with his fantoccini, or marionettes, in Dublin in the late 18th century. His wife is credited on this silk programme as having made 'the Dresses etc', while J. Rebecqui is credited with the 'Machinery'. It seems curious that Mrs. Rebecqui is enjoying her own Benefit performance for one of her husband's shows, during which she would have received a percentage of the profits, but as a member of the troupe it would of course have been her right. Playbill printed in black ink on a faded cream colour silk, with hand-stitched edges.