Description:Pearlware over-glaze painted figure. Height 410mm. William Shakespeare (1564-1616) is Britain's most famous dramatist and poet. This figure is based on Peter Scheemaker's design of 1740 for the memorial to Shakespeare in Westminster Abbey. The figure is marked P.V., which is probably the plaster maker Peter Vanina, whose original model appears to have been used by Enoch Wood. The figure was excavated at St. Paul's Church, Burslem in 1974.