Since 1756, the British Museum has acquired, by gift, bequest or purchase, some 90 works of portrait sculpture. Presented in a variety of media, most of the sitters are eminent statesmen, scholars and authors and many of the works are by sculptors of the first rank, yet the pieces have rarely been on public display and are correspondingly little known. The portraits have been closely studied and catalogued in this illustrated volume. For each piece, Aileen Dawson considers the gensis, material, place in the artist's oeuvre, and history in the museum.