Take a look here: LIMBERJACK DESIGN for a drawing of one obviously based on the one we sell at Folk-Legacy, developed by David Bredemeier and me back in about 1962. I thought I got the name "LimberJack" from George Armstrong, but he later assured me that I hadn't. Whatever, that's the name I knew for it, and we've been making them ever since, and that name has really gotten around! We've found traditional examples called "Dancing Dan," "Jack Limberlegs," "Yankee Doodle Dancer," "Clogging Man," "Paddle Puppet," etc.

When Peter Kennedy sent me photographs of old Harry Cox, the great East Anglian traditional singer, to use with my recording of his English Love Songs, one was of old Mr. Cox dancing a LimberJack in front of his cottage -- nice model, too, with sort of Dutch wooden shoes for clogs. We've seen other examples from England, Ireland, Scotland, Germany and from what was then Rhodesia.

Reading a collection of quotations once, I came across a French political quip dating to 1730: "So-and-so is as useless as a puppet without the board he dances on! Must have been referring to a LimberJack-type of puppet.

Sandy