This plaque of William Shakespeare (1564-1616) was produced some time in the first half of the 20th century by Osborne Ivorex, a company founded in 1899 by Arthur Osborne in Faversham, Kent, which traded until 1965.

Arthur Osborne (1855-1943) worked in Canada and the United States in the 1870s, and while working for a tile company in Boston, became a specialist in designing low-relief tiles. Back in England in 1898 he began making three-dimensional relief images in clay, and in 1899 exhibited three reliefs at the Royal Academy. This soon developed into the production of the plaques that gave Faversham a thriving industry. Osborne created detailed master plaques in clay, often using picture postcards, and from these made gelatine moulds into which was poured plaster of Paris, sometimes mixed with ochre-coloured pigment. Once dry, the plaques were unmoulded, hand-painted with watercolour and then dipped in paraffin wax to give them their characteristic ivory-like finish. Brass eyelet rings and cords for hanging were fitted to the backs; some were mounted in black lacquered frames with a dark velvet slip and all were sold in custom-made cardboard boxes. The firm produced 495 different pieces including plaques, free-standing shelf pieces, calendar holders and figurines, and Ivorex wares were sold at the British Empire Exhibition in 1924.