This figure represents Africa. It is a purely decorative piece from a set representing the Four Continents. Each of the figures is frontally posed, and the backs are poorly finished, so they were probably intended to be set against a wall. They may have been displayed set out on a chimneypiece or other domestic furnishing. The convention for depicting the Four Continents as female figures was used as early as the Counter-Reformation to symbolise the worldwide spread of Catholic Christendom. The figures were given wider appeal through their inclusion in the Iconologia of Cesare Ripa, an illustrated book of emblems widely used by artists from the early 17th century. ‘Africa’ was conventionally depicted as a black woman with ‘frizl’d Hair; an Elephant’s Head for her Crest; a Necklace of Coral; and Pendents [sic] of the same, at her Ears; a Scorpion in her right Hand, and a Cornucopia, with Ears of Corn, in her left; a fierce Lion by her, on one Side, and a Viper and Serpent on the other. This set of figures was first made by the partnership of Nicholas Crisp (born about 1704; died 1774) and John Saunders at Vauxhall in London. The modeller of the Vauxhall Continents has not been identified. However, the Neo-classical sculptor John Bacon the Elder (1740-1799) was apprenticed to Crisp and is said to have modelled for the factory. On the other hand, Crisp also employed a modeller and mould-maker named Hammersley, who later worked at Plymouth, where this figure was made. Even if he did not model the figure, Hammersley may have made the moulds in which they were cast, and he presumably brought the moulds or casting models from London to Plymouth. The Plymouth factory was founded by William Cookworthy (1705-1780), an apothecary. Cookworthy had discovered the raw materials required for 'true' or hard-paste porcelain when prospecting in Cornwall in the 1740s, but he did not succeed in manufacturing it on a commercial scale until 1768.