Eddison Collection

Earthenware flatbacks and figurines for mantelpiece decoration were first produced in Staffordshire in the late 1830s. The earliest datable Staffordshire figures appear to be those of Queen Victoria, who was crowned in 1837. Images of royalty proved lucrative and during the 1840s Staffordshire pottery firms issued countless other royal figures. Although some appeared after Victoria's 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. As well as the royal family they represented a wide variety of subjects, those of actors and actresses being especially popular.

This identity of this figurine is not known but it would have been modelled on an engraving of a contemporary clown. His costume and make-up are typically that of a 19th-century clown, which did not change much throughout the century. It may be Joseph Grimaldi (1779-1837), the great clown who made his name in pantomime in the theatre and not the circus in the early part of the century, but countless other clowns who looked similar in costume followed him, working in both the circus and the theatre.