A marble full length statue of Sappho, in contraposto pose with her head bowed, partially draped around hips and with laurel wreath in her hair, holding lyre in her left hand balancing on her thigh. Figure stands on circular revolving 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. Sappho is depicted in a delicate contraposto pose with her head bowed, holding a lyre in her left hand which she rests on her left thigh, and partially dressed with draperies gathered around her hips and wearing a laurel wreath on her head.

This full length marble statue of Sappho was reproduced in 1851 and 1869 by Copeland, the ceramic manufacturer, in reduced versions in parian ware. Parian ware was an affordable type of biscuit porcelain that imitated white marble.