A marble full length statue of Sappho, in contraposto pose with her head bowed. She wears a garland of berried laurel. Her lower body is loosely wrapped with drapery. With her outstretched left arm she holds a lyre made from horns and a turtle shell, and in her right hand she holds a plectrum. The title sappho is incised on the front of the integral circular marble base.

This marble statue is one of the first royal commissions that the sculptor William Theed received after his return from Rome in 1848, a period when he was consolidating his reputation as one of the most successful neo-classical sculptors in England.

Sappho was one of the most famous poets of ancient Greece and her poems, highly rhythmical, were composed to be recited to the tune of a lyre. She appears here at a moment of inspiration, preparing to strike her lyre with the plectrum, a device with whose invention she is credited.

An almost full-size (86.3 cm) Copeland Parian version was shown at the Great Exhibition and included in the Art Journal Illustrated Catalogue where it was described as ‘the largest yet attempted in this style of Art-manufacture'. Parian ware was an affordable type of biscuit porcelain that imitated white marble.

Text adapted from Sculpture in the Collection of His Majesty The King (2025)