CACrown ArchivesThe cinema collection
Menu
Research dossier · General Reference

Niobe (Paulton play)

1892 farce by Harry Paulton and Edward A. Paulton

Cross-disciplinary reference desk with index cards, atlas, dictionary and catalogue
General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionJan 2, 2026
Entity authorityQ85789207 ↗
Source-derived summary

Niobe, also known as Niobe: All Smiles, is a farce written by Harry Paulton in 1892. The show had more than five hundred performances at the Royal Strand Theatre in London's West End. The play toured other countries, including Australia and with other companies

Plot

The play revolves around the Edwardian family values being tested by unusual circumstances. The household contains a marble statue of Niobe. The moment of magical transformation occurs as the statue is bought to life by a quaint electrical storm.

Editorial summary

“Niobe (Paulton play)” enters the record as 1892 farce by Harry Paulton and Edward A. Paulton. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Niobe, Paulton and play can confirm, complicate or overturn.

Editorial reviewA dependable orientation record for establishing vocabulary, names and a first evidence trail. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1892—that can be checked directly. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. Its strongest next move is a source search built around Niobe, Paulton and play.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

“Niobe (Paulton play)” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Niobe, Paulton and play provides the most credible route into that argument.

Evidence profile

The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jan 2, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q85789207. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1892.

Critical limits

A concise general-reference account can conceal disagreements about scope, terminology or the weight assigned to individual sources. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

Best used for
  • Subject orientation
  • Search vocabulary
  • Locating named sources
Verify next

The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Niobe (Paulton play)”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Niobe (Paulton play) primary sources, Niobe (Paulton play) archive and Niobe research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Niobe (Paulton play)”?
  2. Which cited source is closest to the event, object or claim?
  3. Which institution is responsible for the underlying evidence?
Subject index

Search terms from this dossier

Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Niobe (Paulton play)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.