The origins of the individual puppets in this book vary, and many of their dates of creation are simply unknown as they are one-of-a-kind objects, created by skilled craftsman on a one-by-one basis to represent figures from the various beloved stories and mythologies of their culture. Most of the puppets within this collection come from Taiwan, China, Mongolia, and Thailand and were created between the year 1800 and the early 1900s. The oldest in the collection were made around the year 1800 while the majority of the puppets were made around 1900. There are a few modern reproductions in the collection as well, possibly from the 1960s to the 1980s, but there are only a handful of these in the collection. They are mostly extremely old and exceedingly rare, having been acquired over the course of many years and travels. They come from a wide array of private estates and noted collectors from all over the globe. Many have come from antique stores all over Europe and the United States, while some have come from their origin in their home countries in Asia. As the precise dating and knowledge of the origin of these puppets is a most difficult task, most of the above information is an educational-informed conjecture based upon my personal studies into this fascinating subject of antiquity.
