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 for Benjamin Webster at the Haymarket, and produced ‘The Fair One with the Golden Locks,’ 26 Dec. 1843, the first of several Christmas and Easter pieces, in which Priscilla Horton, afterwards Mrs. German Reed [q. v.], was the leading actress. He then returned to the service of Madame Vestris, and when, in October 1847, she undertook the management of the Lyceum theatre, he became her superintendent of the decorative department and leading author. On the opening of her season, 18 Oct. 1847, he produced ‘The Pride of the Market’ from the French, and at Christmas ‘The Golden Branch.’ His numerous burlesques and Christmas pieces, which were produced by Madame Vestris at the Lyceum, won him and his employer their chief theatrical reputation. His ‘Island of Jewels,’ acted on 26 Dec. 1849, was perhaps her greatest success there.

Other managers continued to welcome his work. On 28 March 1853 he brought out at the Haymarket ‘Mr. Buckstone's Ascent of Mount Parnassus,’ a travesty of Albert Smith's entertainment ‘The Ascent of Mont Blanc.’ For Augustus Harris, at the Princess's Theatre, he prepared ‘Love and Fortune,’ a comedy in verse after the manner of those acted at the fairs of Saint-Germain and Fontainebleau (24 Sept. 1859). This piece was not understood either by the public or the press, and failed. On 12 July 1861 a comedy written by him fourteen years previously, ‘My Lord and My Lady,’ was brought out at the Haymarket with Mr. and Mrs. Charles Mathews, Mrs. Wilkins, and J. B. Buckstone in the cast, and ran fifty nights. In September 1866 he adapted Offenbach's opera-bouffe, ‘Orphée aux Enfers,’ for the same theatre, under the title of ‘Orpheus in the Haymarket;’ the piece ran from Christmas to Easter, and saw the first appearance of Louise Keeley. His last dramatic piece was ‘King Christmas,’ a one-act masque at the Gallery of Illustrations on 26 Dec. 1871, but he subsequently wrote the songs for ‘Babil and Bijou,’ a spectacle, at Covent Garden on 29 Aug. 1872.

Meanwhile Planché was making a reputation as an antiquary and a scholarly student of heraldry and costume. On 24 Dec. 1829 he was elected a fellow of the Society of Antiquaries. There he made the acquaintance of Hallam, Hudson Gurney, Crabb Robinson, and other literary men. He became dissatisfied with the management of the society in 1843, and aided in the formation of the British Archæological Association in December 1843; but when a secession took place in February 1845, he remained a member of the parent society, to the proceedings of which he made many valuable contributions. He resigned his membership in 1852. In 1834, with the advice and encouragement of Francis Douce and Sir Samuel Rush Meyrick [q. v.], he published ‘The History of British Costumes,’ the result of a ten years' diligent study. The work rendered a great service to English historical painters. It went to a second edition in 1847, and to a third in 1874. On 13 Feb. 1854 the Duke of Norfolk appointed him rouge croix pursuivant of arms at the Heralds' College, and in this capacity he went with Sir Charles G. Young, Garter king-of-arms, to Lisbon in May 1858, to invest the king of Portugal with the order of the Garter. In April 1865 he went on a second mission to Lisbon to invest Dom Louis with the Garter. After his promotion to the office of Somerset herald on 7 June 1866, he went on a third mission, this time to Vienna to present the Garter to the emperor of Austria. In 1857 he arranged Colonel Augustus Meyrick's collection of armour for the exhibition of art treasures at Manchester, and again in December 1868 at the South Kensington Museum. Between 1855 and 1869 Planché made several reports on the state of the armoury in the Tower of London; finally in the latter year he, at the request of the war office, rearranged the armour in chronological order and made a final report on the condition and maintenance. He was granted a civil list pension of 100l. on 21 June 1871, and died at 10 St. Leonard's Terrace, Chelsea, on 30 May 1880.

Besides the works already mentioned, Planché's chief publications were: 1. ‘Costumes of Shakespeare's King John, &c., by J. K. Meadows and G. Scharf, with biographical, critical, and explanatory notices,’ 1823–5, 5 parts. 2. ‘Shere Afkun, the first husband of Nourmahal, a legend of Hindoostan,’ 1823. 3. ‘Descent of the Danube from Ratisbon to Vienna,’ 1828. 4. ‘A Catalogue of the Collection of Ancient Arms and Armour, the property of Bernard Brocas, with a prefatory notice,’ 1834. 5. ‘Regal Records, or a Chronicle of the Coronation of the Queens Regnant of England,’ 1838. 6. ‘The Pursuivant of Arms, or Heraldry founded upon Facts,’ 1852; 3rd edit. 1874. 7. ‘A Corner of Kent, or some account of the parish of Ash-next-Sandwich,’ 1864. 8. ‘Pieces of Pleasantry for private performance during the Christmas Holidays,’ 1868. 9. ‘Recollections and Reflections,’ 1872, 2 vols. 10. ‘William with the Ring, a romance in rhyme,’ 1873. 11. ‘The Conqueror and his Companions,’ 1874, 2 vols., well written and often quoted as an authority. 12. ‘A Cyclopædia of Costume, or Dictionary of Dress,’ 1876–9,