This is a theatrical figure representing an actor in the role of Artabanes, from the opera Artaxerxes. The figure stands 11 3/4” tall, dates to approximately 1830-1840, and is very rare. There is a dagger in his right hand, part of the blade being hidden beneath his sash.  The interior and the edging of his coat are fully lined with ermine.

Artaxerxes was an opera by Thomas Arne, originally performed at the Theatre Royal, Covent Garden, in 1762.  It continued through the late 1830s. There is some uncertainty regarding who the actor was in the 1830s, therefore whom our Figure of the Month represents.  Anthony Oliver, in his book “Staffordshire Pottery, the Tribal Art of England”, page 118, shows a similar figure and speculates that the actor may have been “Mr. Wood”.  Harding in his “Victorian Staffordshire Figures, Book One”, page 336, shows a similar figure and suggests the actor was either “Mr. Wood or Mr. Sinclair”.  In the ”Second Addendum of Victorian Staffordshire Figures”, page 91, Harding shows another similar figure without referencing the actual actor.  Pugh shows yet another similar figure on page 447 of his “Staffordshire Portrait Figures”, referring to it as a “Male Middle Eastern Musician”, without reference to the actor. Interestingly, all of the recorded figures differ substantially from our figure of the month, and some of these figures have an impressed mark “Lloyd Shelton”.