A full-length polychrome figurehead representing Lalla Rookh from the iron three-masted sailing ship Lalla Rookh (1853). The figurehead is painted white with a blue and white top trimmed in gold. She is wearing a pearl necklace and holding a lamp in both hands. The ship was was wrecked near Salcombe in 1873.

The figurehead may have been inspired by the original illustrations from the published poem with common, if stylised, features. These include long, flowing hair, the tasselled cord that has been adapted into the edge tassel of her jacket, and the headdress, consisting of a jewelled headband and a diaphanous silk veil swept back over her hair.

Older photographs of the figurehead show that the paint scheme was a rich dark one of green, red and gold. The figurehead has a hollow tube running from the lamp down her arm and under her armpit. This suggests that at some point the lamp was designed to be used with oil, perhaps on windless days in harbour as a novelty stunt or, more likely, adapted after the figurehead was brought ashore. Either way, the lamp links back to the poem, where the final stanzas are entitled ‘The Light of the Haram’, a metaphor for the beauty of one of the women who lived in the harem and for Kashmir. The figurehead takes this idea and suggests that the new beauty will be Lalla Rookh, as she is now holding the lamp.

Lalla Rookh's name in Persian meaning ‘tulip cheeked’. She was the title character in a book-length romantic poem by Thomas Moore, published in 1817. It tells the story of the princess’s journey from Delhi to Kashmir to marry a prince she had never met. On the journey she was entertained by an unknown poet, who turned out to be the prince in disguise.