Edwardian "Miss Jessica Waters" Photo Locket
Edwardian "Miss Jessica Waters" Photo Locket
$275.00
Description
DATE: Edwardian, c.1910
Charming antique round locket with a black and white miniature photograph of 'Miss Jessica Waters as 'Sunday"'. The reverse is beautifully adorned with roses and leaves, and it's paired with an original signed postcard of Miss Waters appearing as 'Princess Amenset' in 'The Dust of Egypt'.
Jessica Waters was a theatre actress active during the early years of the 20th century. There's little information about her online, but judging by these pieces she must have been quite famous in her day, touring the old theatres and music halls of England (and who knows, maybe further afield). There's a snippet in The Cambria Daily Leader: "GRAND THEATRE SWANSEA. MONDAY, DECEMBER 7th, 1914, For Six Nights at 7.30. Visit of Miss Jessica Waters, supported by the No. 1 London Company. Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday- MARY GOES FIRST. r Thursday, Friday, and Saturday- THE DUST OF EGYPT." And a couple of mentions in the Oxford Journal Illustrated newspaper. Again in 'The Dust of Egypt' (this time in October 1912) and in 1909 as "Actress at New Theatre".
The play - The Dust of Egypt - that Miss Waters starred in again and again was written by Alan Campbell, and seems to have been something of a sensation in its day. From the Eastbourne Chronicle, December 19th 1914:
MISS JESSICA WATERS and Company In the Laughter-making Farce,
'The Dust o f Egypt.'
By Alan Campbell.
In 1913 it was staged in Los Angeles, as documented in the ^Los Angeles Herald 20th March 1913: "BEGINNING NEXT SUNDAY AFTERNOON—FIRST PRODUCTION IN AMERICA. The Morocco Producing company will give the first American production of Alan Campbell's new comedy success. ‘The Dust of Egypt” NOW THE REIGNING LAUGHING SENSATION OF THE LONDON STAGE." And it appears to have been made into a movie in 1915 - directed by George D. Baker. imdb.com describes the film as, "An imperious Egyptian princess awakes from a 3000-year trance and wreaks comic havoc in the modern world, but it all turns out to be the dream of a young man, inspired by a mummy left in his care overnight." Wild, no doubt.
MEASUREMENTS
2.3 x 1.9cm (not including jump ring)
WEIGHT
1.7g
MARKS
None, tests as pinchbeck
CONDITION
Excellent
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