Boy this is gonna be a left field comment but I am sure you will find it quite interesting. I have been ‘researching’ the origin of the Grays, the image as well as the name, for a class of aliens often referred to in Ufology and related fields. Whitley Strieber made one of them famous on his cover for “Communion”.

Needless to say I found a reference to a puppet in a book titled “Beyond Science Fiction”:

“As I was in the process of writing this book I was following up on some strange relics exhibited at the Detroit Institute of Arts in my hometown. In a display of very old puppets, I was surprised to see a puppet of a Gray included in the collection. He had the typical large head and big black eyes, his frame thin and stick like. The most odd thing was the title and date. “Future Ghost 1920″…”

Now I went so far as to email the “Detroit Institute of Arts” re this puppet. And their generous reply was that it originated from a production of “A Christmas Carol” in 1921- the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come. Your comment re “The Pickwick Papers” indicates the idea for the ghosts in the Carol may indeed have been in the goblins from the tale in Papers. Wikipedia says something quite similar.

The puppet I mentioned above, a marionette, is part of the Paul McPharlin Puppetry Collection. It does indeed have a curious resemblance to the Grays and I tried to include, from the generous reply of the Curator of the collection, a picture of the ghost with a part of the cast as well but was unable to do so.

The interest of Dickens in mesmerism and the fact he was a practitioner as well came as something of a shock! Your article, short and sweet, is still quite interesting and packed with curiosity!

James