This Wedgwood jasperware plaque is decorated with the figure of Poor Maria, a character from Laurence Sterne's fabulously popular novel of 1768, A Sentimental Journey through France and Italy. The novel was received with rapturous enthusiasm and inspired the creation of paintings and prints based on scenes from the book, but also small personal items such as brooches, snuff boxes, fan mounts and buckles for belt, shoe or knee breeches. This plaque would have been set into a buckle, possibly with cut steel mounts.

Poor Maria is depicted sitting under a poplar, mourning her lost lover. She is recognisable by the small dog Sylvio, who keeps her company and by the flute in her lap. This plaque has a pair decorated with an image of The Bourbonnais Shepherd. The Shepherd, who is often shown as a counterpart to Maria, makes only a passing appearance in the text, described as "the roughest peasant who traverses the bleakest mountain", but he provides a useful foil to the lovelorn and pitiable Maria. Shepherd and shepherdess figures appealed to a romantic sensibility, acting as totems of a simpler, picturesque life.