Produced by Wedgwood & Sons in July 1858 this fine parian bust is after the designs of Edward Willian Wyon (1811-1885).

Wyon studied at the Royal Academy schools from 1829, and became a celebrated sculptor, exhibiting at the Royal Academy regularly from 1831 to 1876. Among his commissions were works intended for reproduction by Wedgwood as well as numerous portrait busts.

George Stephenson (1779 to 1843) is generally credited as the principal inventor of the railway locomotive and is often known as ‘The Father of the Railways’. Railway transportation was born on 27th September 1825 when Stephenson’s Locomotion ran from Darlington to Stockton, carrying 450 persons at 15 miles per hour (24km/h). Stephenson’s later ‘Rocket’ won a famous competition to find the fastest locomotive by travelling at an average speed of 36 miles per hour (58km/h) from Liverpool to Manchester in 1830.