Figure depicting Arthur Orton, aka 'The Tichborne Claimant'
- Object Number: STKMG:1980.P.275
- Simple Name: figure
- Production Place: Stoke-on-Trent
- Production Place: Staffordshire
- Production Place: England
- Production Period:
- 19th century, late
- Summary: Figure depicting Arthur Orton, aka 'The Tichborne Claimant'. Orton is depicted smartly dressed in a coat and hat. He leans on a gun with his right hand and holds a bird in his left. 'Sir. R. Tichborne' is inscribed on the base of the figure. Earthenware with overglaze painted decoration.
- Terms:ceramics
- Terms:figures
- Terms:commemorative
- Terms:heroes & villains
- Terms:crime & punishment
- Terms:18th & 19th Century Staffordshire
- Inscription:
- Additional Notes: The Victorian public loved a mystery. Roger Charles Doughty Tichborne's family were baronets and lords of the manor of Tichborne, Hampshire. In 1853, at the age of 24, Roger was travelling to South America when the ship he was travelling on was wrecked off Brazil. He was eventually presumed dead.
- Additional Notes: Roger's mother continued to hope he was alive. In 1865 news came that Roger had been found. We was working as a butcher in Wagga Wagga, Australia, calling himself Thomas Castro. Lady Tichborne and former servants of the family claimed to recognise the man, who bore a facial resemblance. However, whilst Roger had been a slender young man, Castro was nearly 20 stone and neither spoke or understood French, which had been Roger's first language.
- Additional Notes: Suspicious relations dismissed him as an imposter, claiming he was in fact Arthur Orton, oringinal from Wapping, London. But Lady Tichborne was convinced her son had returned to her and provided him with an income of £1,000 a year. After her death, Orton brought a civil case to establish himself as Roger but this was thrown out. In 1873 he was tried for perjury. He was found guilty, declared to be Arthur Orton and sentenced to 14 years' imprisonment.
- Contact: Potteries Museum and Art Gallery
