{"meta":{"version":"2.1","_links":{"self":{"href":"https://api.vam.ac.uk/v2/object/O119627"},"collection_page":{"href":"https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O119627/"}},"images":{"_primary_thumbnail":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2017KC5930/full/!100,100/0/default.jpg","_iiif_image":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2017KC5930/","_alt_iiif_image":[],"imageResolution":"high","_images_meta":[{"assetRef":"2017KC5930","copyright":"©Victoria & Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2017KC5931","copyright":"©Victoria & Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false}]},"see_also":{"_iiif_pres":"https://iiif.vam.ac.uk/collections/O119627/manifest.json","_alt_iiif_pres":[]}},"record":{"systemNumber":"O119627","accessionNumber":"S.158-1986","objectType":"Figurine","titles":[],"summaryDescription":"This Staffordshire figurine depicts Ellen Blight, who performed as a lion-tamer in her Uncle George Wombwell's touring menagerie.\n\nThe menagerie toured to Chatham in Kent, where Blight was tragically attacked and killed by a tiger during a perfromance on the 11th January 1850.  Blight was just 17 years of age.  The case was a news sensation, making Blight a household name.  Ceramic figures such as this one where produced commercially to commemorate her tragic death. ","physicalDescription":"The figure is shown standing, wearing a plumed hat, a bodice, wide knee-length skirt and boots. On her right is a lion whose right forepaw she holds in her left hand, supporting a floral hoop on her right shoulder, holding it in her right hand.  A tiger climbs up her left side, no doubt a reference to the manner of her death. ","artistMakerPerson":[{"name":{"text":"Unknown","id":"A1848"},"association":{"text":"makers","id":"AAT251917"},"note":""}],"artistMakerOrganisations":[],"artistMakerPeople":[],"materials":[{"text":"earthenware","id":"x29356"},{"text":"glaze","id":"AAT15091"}],"techniques":[{"text":"moulding","id":"AAT53134"},{"text":"firing (heating)","id":"AAT53887"},{"text":"painting","id":"x30598"},{"text":"glazing (coating)","id":"AAT53914"}],"materialsAndTechniques":"Glazed earthenware","categories":[{"text":"Entertainment & Leisure","id":"THES48959"},{"text":"Figures & Decorative ceramics","id":"THES48954"},{"text":"Ceramics","id":"THES48982"},{"text":"Circus","id":"THES261738"}],"styles":[],"collectionCode":{"text":"T&P","id":"THES48602"},"images":["2017KC5930","2017KC5931"],"imageResolution":"high","galleryLocations":[{"current":{"text":"001","id":"THES355434"},"free":"","case":"","shelf":"","box":""}],"partTypes":[[{"text":"figurines","id":"AAT47455"}]],"contentWarnings":[{"apprise":"","note":""}],"placesOfOrigin":[{"place":{"text":"Staffordshire","id":"x29181"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":""}],"productionDates":[{"date":{"text":"ca.1850","earliest":"1845-01-01","latest":"1854-12-31"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":""}],"associatedObjects":[],"creditLine":"Antony Hippisley Coxe Collection","dimensions":[{"dimension":"Height","value":"32.5","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""},{"dimension":"Width","value":"26","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""}],"dimensionsNote":"","marksAndInscriptions":[],"objectHistory":"Exhibited in the V&A circus display, Gallery 104A, celebrating the 250th anniversary of the foundation of circus, April 2018 to February 2019","historicalContext":"","briefDescription":"Figurine of a female lion tamer, probably Ellen Blight 'The Lion Queen', ca.1850.  ","bibliographicReferences":[{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"<i>Staffordshire Portrait Figures of the Victorian Era</i> by P.D. Gordon Pugh, p.450"},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":""},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"<i>The Circus in Ceramics</i> by Antony Hippisley Coxe.  Published in <i>The Tatler and Bystander</i>, 8 November 1957"}],"production":"","productionType":{"text":"","id":""},"contentDescription":"The figure is flanked by two animals; a lion and a tiger, symbolic of the animals that made her famous; both in terms of her work as well as the manner of her death. ","contentPlaces":[],"associatedPlaces":[],"contentPerson":[{"text":"Ellen Blight","id":"AUTH407372"},{"text":"","id":""}],"associatedPerson":[],"contentOrganisations":[],"associatedOrganisations":[],"contentPeople":[],"associatedPeople":[],"contentEvents":[],"associatedEvents":[],"contentOthers":[],"contentConcepts":[],"contentLiteraryRefs":[],"galleryLabels":[],"partNumbers":["S.158-1986"],"accessionNumberNum":"158","accessionNumberPrefix":"S","accessionYear":1986,"otherNumbers":[],"copyNumber":"","aspects":["WHOLE"],"assets":[],"recordModificationDate":"2026-02-09","recordCreationDate":"2005-12-13","availableToBook":true}}