Earthenware flatbacks and figurines for mantelpiece decoration were first produced in Staffordshire in the late 1830s. The earliest datable figures appear to be of Queen Victoria, and although a few figures were produced after her death in 1901, few appear to have been produced after 1905. During their heyday, however, they were produced in vast numbers, usually modelled after prints. They represented a wide variety of subjects but those of actors and actresses were especially popular.

This represents William Charles Macready (1793-1873) as Macbeth, a part he first played at Covent Garden Theatre in 1820, and chose to play for his farewell performance on 26 February 1851. The son of a provincial actor-manager, Macready made his first stage appearance at Birmingham as Romeo, and made his London debut in 1816 at Covent Garden. By 1819 he was firmly established as a leading actor and a rival to the great Edmund Kean. His Lear, Hamlet and Macbeth were especially acclaimed, prompting the critic Hazlitt to call him the best tragic actor of his day, with the exception of Kean. Macready worked hard to help restore the reputation of the theatre and was at times manager of both Covent Garden and Drury Lane Theatres.