This unusual Staffordshire figure of Billy Walters (left), c.1820, by Enoch Wood was among the pieces sold at the recent Chelsea Antiques, Art & Design Fair (March 15-19).
Walters (c.1778-1823) was injured in the British Army and earned a living as a busker, playing violin outside West End theatres and immortalised in William Thomas Moncrieff’s play Tom and Jerry, or Life in London (1821).
The piece was brought by early English pottery specialist Roger de Ville. “A local visitor to the fair recognised the figure of Bill and knew his story and had to buy the piece,” de Ville says. “That’s exactly the kind of knowledgeable purchaser we always meet at the Chelsea fair.” The object sold for £1350.