Head-and-shoulders terracotta bust of Oliver Cromwell, bare-headed, in armour decorated with a Medusa head on the cuirass. 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 (SCU0005), Shakespeare and Pope, Cromwell and Milton, and Newton and Locke. Lord Hatherton consigned these (excluding Shakespeare) and other Rysbracks that his ancestor had purchased, with the related Rysbrack letters about them, to Spink's for exhibition and sale in July 1932. The three busts now in the Museum were purchased for it there by Sir James Caird.

This one is probably based on various portraits of Cromwell by Robert Walker, with the 'gorgoneion' on the cuirass drawn from classical sources as a sign of immortality. For further notes see SCU0043.