Author: P. D. Gordon Pugh

Published: 1970, 1981, 1987, 1999 reprint

Publisher: Antique Collectors' Club

Pages: 558 pages

ISBN: 1999 edition ISBN-10: 1851490108 ISBN-13: 978-1851490103

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. The book is affectionately known as ‘Pugh’ and is considered a bible for Staffordshire figure collectors.

There have been two revisions (1981, 1987, plus a reprint in 1999) with updated information, new photography and redesigns to make the catalogue as easy to use as possible. The 1987 / 1999 edition includes specially commissioned colour photographs from the City Museum and Art Gallery, Stoke-on-Trent where the bulk of Pugh’s collection was then 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.