Earthenware flatbacks and figurines for mantelpiece decoration were first produced in Staffordshire in the mid-1830s. The earliest datable figures appear to be of Queen Victoria, and although a few figures were produced after her death in 1901, few appear to have been produced after 1905. During their heyday they were produced in vast numbers, usually modelled after prints. They represented a wide variety of subjects but those of actors and actresses were especially popular.

This is the actor and comedian Edward Southern (1826-1881) as Lord Dundreary in Tom Taylor's play Our American Cousin which was a success in New York in 1858 and a huge hit in London when it opened at the Haymarket Theatre with Southern as Dundreary on 11 November 1861. Originally the character Dundreary was fairly insignificant but Southern worked it up until it became the talk of the town. It was revived several times at the Haymarket with Southern in the role up until 1878. Later his son Edwin Hugh revived the part. This figurine was modelled on the music sheet engraving for the Lord Dundreary Waltz showing the moment in Act IV when Brother Sam's letter is read and Lord Dundreary is counting his relations on his fingers.