Royal Doulton Figurine Beggar HN2175

Beggar (HN2175) was designed by Leslie Harradine and produced by Royal Doulton from 1956 to 1962. Standing 7 inches (18 cm) tall, this commanding character figure belongs to the Beggar's Opera series — Royal Doulton's tribute to one of the most celebrated and subversive works in British theatrical history.

The figure depicts an older barefoot man in the ragged costume of an 18th-century street mendicant: a dark blue tattered overcoat worn over a white shirt, olive green slacks, an orange waistband, and a battered black hat. The hand-painting conveys the deliberate dishevelment of the character with precision — frayed edges, worn fabric, the studied poverty of a man who is more than he appears — and Harradine brings his characteristic life and dignity to a subject that lesser artists would have rendered merely pitiable.

The figure draws its identity from John Gay's The Beggar's Opera, the satirical ballad opera first performed in London in 1728 and widely understood as a pointed attack on political corruption, with its highwaymen and pickpockets standing in for the ruling classes. Gay's Beggar is believed to represent the author himself — a frame narrator who winks at the audience while the chaos unfolds around him. The piece enjoyed a legendary revival in 1920 at the Lyric Theatre in Hammersmith, running for 1,463 performances, one of the longest theatrical runs in British history at that time.

With a production window of just six years, HN2175 is among the scarcer pieces in the Beggar's Opera series and rarely appears in clean, first-quality condition. Collectors of Harradine character figures, theatrical subjects, and 18th-century literary references will all find this a compelling addition. Fully insured shipping across Canada with tracking.