Head-and-shoulders terracotta bust of Francis Bacon, the head turned to sitter's right, in contemporary 17th-century dress including hat, and signed on reverse 'Michl. Rysbrack 1755'.

This is one of eight busts of British worthies made by Rysbrack for Sir Edward Littleton's new house, Teddesley Hall near Stafford (now demolished), when he was furnishing it in neo-classical style. They essentially comprised four pairs: Raleigh (SCU0043) and Bacon, Shakespeare and Pope, Cromwell (SCU0014) and Milton, and Newton and Locke.

Littleton also had other examples in terracotta by Rysbrack of whom he was an important patron. Most were dispersed through Spink's, London, in 1932 by his descendant Lord Hatherton, when Sir James Caird purchased the busts of Bacon, Ralegh and Cromwell for the Museum. Bacon was a politician, Lord Chancellor of England and an important scientific philosopher. His writings underpin the experimental empiricism by which navigation, astronomy and many other fields advanced in Britain from the late 17th century. See SCU0043 for further notes on the set.