This is a preliminary sketch model for a monument commemorating the Hon. Barbara Lowther, in the church of St. Mary Magdalene, Richmond, Surrey, made by John Flaxman in ca. 1805. The monument to Barbara Lowther was commissioned by her sister, Katherine, Duchess of Bolton, and cost 220 guineas. The oval scratch in the pedestal marks the positioning of a medallion containing the portrait of the deceased. A later larger model for this monument is also on loan from University College.

John Flaxman (1755-1826) was an English sculptor, designer and teacher. He was the most famous English Neo-classical sculptor of the late 18th century and the early 19th. He focused on monumental sculpture and church monuments and portrait busts. A large collection of his plaster models is held in the Strang Print Room, University College, London. He also made outline illustrations of Homer, Aeschylus and Dante. Many of those in his sketchbooks (now in the V&A) were drawn from the antique while he was in Italy. Furthermore he produced models for pottery and silver supplying the pottery manufacturer Josiah Wedgwood among others. He thus can be considered as an important pioneer in the development of Industrial Design.