When this book was first published in 1970 it provided precisely what the collector of Staffordshire portrait figures had long required: an extensive photographic record of the 1,500 or so portrait figures which were produced in the nineteenth century and which encapsulate so much of the history of Victorian England. As a collecting subject these figures are popular throughout the English speaking world and beyond while the increases in prices being recorded confirm the continued interest. This reprint is the revised edition of the standard work affectionately known as 'Pugh'. While it is based on the 1981 revised edition and carefully follows the system of reference numbering, the text has been moved so that the pictures and captions are now close together. Accordingly, the book is easier to use. The new colour photographs were all specifically taken for this edition at the City Museum and Art Gallery, Stoke-on-Trent where the bulk of Surgeon Rear-Admiral Pugh's collection is now housed. The book is also invaluable because of the wide range of practical information it contains on such collecting pitfalls as forgeries, fakes, reproductions and repairs.
