In honour of World Tiger Day, Alan Jamieson reminds us of the ferocious nature of big cats and the macabre allure of the Staffordshire figure ‘The Death of Munrow’, inspired by a fatal tiger attack in 1792.

Gordon Pugh is the man who everyone turns to first when investigating the provenance of a Staffordshire portrait figure. “Is it in Pugh?” tends to be the first question. If the answer is ‘Yes, Pugh has it’ the inquisitor breathes a sigh of relief. ‘No’ means there’s doubt and disappointment.

So who is this Pugh person who dominates collectors’ lives? Alan Jamieson bravely steps into the role of investigator to find out.

At Easter, Stephen Duckworth reveals some early pieces of Staffordshire from his collection, depicting the crucifixion of Jesus and celebrating his supernatural resurrection from the dead.

In 1836, Scottish philosopher and writer Thomas Carlyle wrote: “A dandy is a clothes-wearing Man, a Man whose trade, office and existence consists in the wearing of Clothes. Every faculty of his soul, spirit, purse, and person is heroically consecrated to this one object, the wearing of Clothes wisely and well: so that the others dress to live, he lives to dress.” Win and Pat Hock celebrate these most stylish of Staffordshire figures.

Every month since 2015 we have chosen a Staffordshire figure to feature – it may be unusual, rare, have an interesting story, or might just be one of our favourites.

On 6 February 1837, the scientist-potter-entrepreneur-designer-inventor Ralph Wedgwood died in London. Pat Halfpenny introduces the man and the significant contribution he made to Burslem’s figure production during a very busy ten years.