The Real Tinker Bell comes to Moat Brae
(Artdaily.org)

The real Tinker Bell - a delightful piece of theatrical history will be on display at the new National Centre for Children’s Literature and Storytelling. Moat Brae house and gardens in Dumfries, which opens to the public in spring 2019, was where the teenage JM Barrie and his friends played the games that inspired Peter Pan. When the play was first staged, at the Duke of York’s Theatre, London, in 1904, the mischievous fairy Tinker Bell was represented by a spotlight and the ringing of a small bell. Barrie had bought two bells for the purpose on a trip to Switzerland. Though tiny, they had a clear and distinctive sound that could be heard in every part of the theatre. One bell was given to Elias Elias, the theatre’s foreman and scene changer and became a treasured family heirloom. A descendent of Elias Elias was so interested when she discovered that the house where