18th and 19th centuries stars were often celebrated in paintings, prints, dawings, scultures and ceramics. Small figurines of performers proved lucrative for ceramic firms such as Derby, which was established by the French Huguenot Andrew Planche in the mid-1740s and was one of the earliest English porcelain factories. Porcelain manufacturers were able to copy engravings of the most popular performers and produce small decorative ceramics such as this which helped spread the fame of the subjects concerned.

This is the corpulent English actor James Quin (1693-1766) as Shakespeare's equally corpulent Falstaff, the character in both Henry IV Part 1 and The Merry Wives of Windsor. Quin was Britain's foremost actor after the death of Robert Wilks in 1732 and before the London début of David Garrick in 1741, and could command extremely high salaries wherever he appeared. He was born in Covent Garden of Irish parents, made his first appearances in Dublin in 1713 or 1714, and by early 1715 was a member of the company at London's Drury Lane Theatre. Quin took comic as well as tragic roles, but his Falstaff was best-remembered part, perhaps due to the figurines produced by Bow, Derby, and later, Staffordshire factories.