Steidlville

In 1947 the Circus Clowns Club began keeping a record of its’ member clowns’ make-up. Each clown’s unique makeup was painted onto an egg which was maintained as a register in order to trademark the identity of established clowns. The original eggs were painted on real chicken egg shells by the first head of the Circus Clowns Club, Stan Bult. These eggs now form part of the Clowns’ Gallery and Museum in London and include some of the most famous clowns in circus history, such as Co-Co, Lou Harris and Grimaldi. Birth of a Clown is a book of photographs by Sam Taylor-Wood who discovered the museum while researching clowns as part of a larger project. These 53 photographs contain the oldest of the eggs as well as some newer ones and preserve the eggs as they are now – an odd remnant of a utilitarian project.