Graphic designers Hans and Pat Schleger were collectors of antiquities, who built up their collection with the assistance of their close friend and well-known antiquities dealer, John Hewett. Hans Schleger was a key figure in the history of graphic design. During the Second World War he designed propaganda posters, including ‘Grow Your Own’ for the Dig for Victory campaign. In the mid 1930s, Schleger modernised the "circle and bar" symbol for London Transport, a symbol that was subsequently used for London bus-stops for more than 50 years and to this day is still snyonymous with the city of London.

This regal-looking figure could possibly represent either Demeter, goddess of the harvest and fertility, or perhaps her daughter Persephone, who both had their cult centres and sanctuaries located to the south of Thebes. Cf. Acc. no. 26.60.48 at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York and, R. A. Higgins, Catalogue of the Terracottas in the Department of Greek and Roman Antiquities, The British Museum, London, 1970, I, p. 173, pl. 84, no. 647 for close parallels.