This Staffordshire figurine represents Ellen (or Nellie) Chapman, who performed as Mme. Pauline de Vere, the Lady of the Lions. She was the daughter of Harry Chapman, a peep-show owner, and was brought up by the Manders family who owned a menagerie. She was the second female lion trainer in England, the first being Polly Hilton, a girl who appeared with lions in her uncle's fairground menagerie in the 1840s. When the menagerie owner George Wombwell realised what a draw she was, he employed Nellie Chapman to perform with a range of exotic animals including lions and tigers, leopards and even boa constrictors. Queen Victoria went to Wombwell's and praised 'The Lion Queen', and observers noted her beauty, nerve, self-possession and daring.

In 1847 Nellie performed before Queen Victoria at Windsor and, after putting her head in the lion's mouth and spending nearly half an hour in the cage, Nellie Chapman received a pat on the back from the Prince Consort and a gold watch and chain from the Queen. In 1848 when she was performing with Wombwell's lions at Stepney Fair, she met the circus proprietor and showman 'Lord' George Sanger whom she married in 1850. They had two daughters. Nellie died in 1899, aged 67.