A small half-length polychrome figurehead representing Rose Salterne, a character from Charles Kingsley’s novel Westward Ho! (1855), taken from a wooden 169-ton fruit trading vessel. The figurehead is mounted on three scrolls at the top of the stempost head, painted brown and dark gold.

Set in Bideford, north Devon, during Elizabethan times, the story follows the adventures of privateer Amyas Leigh, who joins Francis Drake and Walter Raleigh in their fight against Spain. Rose, from the village of Torridge, captures Leigh’s heart. But she is kidnapped by the Spanish and burnt at the stake by the Inquisition. The figurehead, in a red, pink and gold dress with red collar, with a cream shawl around her shoulders, is attached to a stake (910mm long, 80mm diameter), signifying her martyrdom. Rose has brown hair with curls at the side of the head and a bun at the back. She is wearing a small gold/red crown. Her eyes are painted brown and has pale skin.