Earthenware flatbacks and figurines for mantelpiece decoration were first produced in Staffordshire in the late 1830s. The earliest appear to have been of Queen Victoria who was crowned in 1837, and during the 1840s countless other royal figures were issued by Staffordshire pottery firms, celebrating for example Victoria's marriage to Prince Albert in 1840, and the birth of the royal children. Although a few Staffordshire portrait figures were produced after Victoria's death in 1901, few appear to have been produced after 1905. During their heyday they were produced in vast numbers, usually modelled after prints. As well as the royal family they represented a wide variety of subjects, including military heroes, political figures, actors and actreses and famous poets and playwrights.

This figurine of William Shakespeare (1564-1616) is one of several versions of him produced by various Staffordshire firms. Moulded figurines like this were relatively cheap and extremely popular; the possession of a figurine of Shakespeare would have been considered a mark of taste in many a Victorian parlour. This figurine was issued in two sizes and a companion piece of Giuseppe Garibaldi was issued, because Garibaldi visited England in 1864, the tricentenary of Shakespeare's birth.