There was a flourishing market in the 19th century for small, decorative ceramic items, especially for earthenware figurines of actors and actresses. Small mass-produced busts such as this were also popular since the owner would have felt they bestowed the mark of a cultivated person when displayed in their home. Several different figurines and busts were produced of William Shakespeare (1564-1616) by Staffordshire pottery firms, especially around the time of the tricentenary of his birth in 1864.

This bust appears to have been based on an engraving of The Chandos portrait of Shakespeare which some consider to be the most reliable record of his appearance. Now in the National Gallery, it was owned by the actor Thomas Betterton, painted probably between 1603 and 1610, showing Shakespeare as a rather swarthy middle-aged Jacobean man with a receding hairline, goatee beard and moustache. Another famous early depiction of Shakespeare is the copper engraving by Martin Droeshout published as a frontispiece to the First Folio in 1623, but since the artist was only fifteen when Shakespeare died, he probably worked from descriptions of Shakespeare by his friends.