Billy Waters was one of several black beggars and street entertainers in early 19th-century London who were immortalised in art and literature. Having served in the British navy, during which he lost a leg, he settled with his family in the London parish of St Giles. He supplemented his meagre pension by busking and begging, particularly outside the nearby Drury Lane Theatre. He was noted for his peg-leg and feathered hat, and is instantly recognisable in a print by George Cruikshank published in Pierce Egan's Life in London (1821). This book was adapted as an operatic extravaganza by W. T. Moncrieff that was performed at the Adelphi Theatre in 1821. It included the character of Billy Waters. He, however, gained nothing from the publicity and died in the workhouse in 1823 at the age of 45. He had reputedly been elected 'King of the Beggars' shortly before his death. He was buried in the New Burial Ground, St Pancras church.

Images of Billy Waters fit into long-standing traditions both of representing sailors and buskers and street-sellers via prints of 'The Cries of London'. The inclusion of real-life black personalities in these images is a reflection of the presence of black people among the London poor. This is one of several ceramic figures of Waters, and one of two in the V&A Museum (see C.317-1916). Several versions of this particular model were made in Staffordshire in the 1820s, one of which can be attributed to the major manufacturer Enoch Wood of Burslem. The modelling of this example, however, is unusual in having an almost white face. This is probably because it was made in a small factory, whose modellers misinterpreted their uncoloured engraved print source. It could even have been made as late as 1836, when similar figures of Thomas Dartmouth Rice playing the black character 'Jim Crow' on the London stage became popular.