Apollo

This parian bust is reduced from the marble 'Apollo Belvedere' by C. Delpech, now in the British Museum. It was commissioned by the Art Union of London, an organisation established in 1836 for the encouragement of British artists and the improvement of public taste in matters of the arts. The Union had an annual subscription rate for which each subscriber received an engraving of a painting, and also the chance of winning a prize picture or sculpture.

Parian-ware, a matt white porcelain developed in the 1840s, recalled the sheen and translucency of the marble of classical sculpture and was widely used for decorative figures.