A rare Ralph Wood pearlware figure of John Milton c.1790-1800, standing beside a pillar moulded with scenes from Paradise Lost, leaning on a stack of books resting on the top, his left knee slightly bent and head looking down to his right, decorated in green, blue, black and manganese glazes, raised on a flat shaped base, repairs to both hands, 29.5cm. This apparently unrecorded figure differs to the models produced at Derby and by later Staffordshire manufacturers, but may well still have been a companion figure to one of Shakespeare.

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