Skip to main content
Flat Back Figure of Dick Turpin
Flat Back Figure of Dick Turpin
Flat Back Figure of Dick Turpin

Flat Back Figure of Dick Turpin

Date19th Century
Object NameFigure
Mediumearthenware
ClassificationsCeramics
DimensionsOverall: Height: 25 cm, Width: 14 cm
AcquisitionThe Catherine Fleming Collection, 1994.
LocationOn Display - Gallery 18
Object numberABDMS024003
About MeTurpin is shown seated on a black horse wearing a green jacket and pink waistcoat with black boots and flat triangular white hat.

Richard "Dick" Turpin (1705 – 1739) was an English highwayman whose exploits were romanticised following his execution in York for horse theft. Turpin may have followed his father's profession as a butcher early in life, but by the early 1730s he had joined a gang of deer thieves, and later became a poacher, burglar, horse thief and murderer. He is also known for a fictional 200-mile (320 km) overnight ride from London to York on his horse Black Bess, a story that was made famous by the Victorian novelist William Harrison Ainsworth almost 100 years after Turpin's death.
More About Me
An early example of celebrity merchandise with a little sculpture of an infamous highwayman of the 18th century.
Exhibitions