This mechanically reduced version of the full-size figure by John Bell is inscribed on the side near the right foot: 'EXECUTED BY/ E.W.WYON/ AFTER THE ORIGINAL OF/ J. BELL/ FOR THE ART UNION OF LONDON/ 1846'.
Bell (1811-1895) first exhibited The eagle shooter at the Royal Academy in 1837, probably a plaster version. The subject was then shown again at an exhibition in Westminster Hall in 1844 as The Archer, or Eagle Slayer. The depicted scene is a shepherd shooting an arrow at an eagle which has just killed a lamb, shown lying at the shepherd's feet. After the 1844 exhibition the figure was bought by the Art Union, an organisation which reproduced contemporary works of art, the reproductions being then raffled and awarded as lottery prizes.
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Large-scale variants of Bell's figure were also made in other materials, including cast iron (shown at the Great Exhibition in 1851, and subsequently entering the collections at South Kensington, now at the Museum of Childhood, Bethnal Green) and marble (shown at the 1862 Exhibition, and subsequently at Wentworth Woodhouse, Yorkshire, sold at Christie's in 1986). Reduced reproductions of what was deemed a suitable and popular subject indicate the ways in which sculpture was consumed and appreciated by audiences in Britain at this time. The Art Union widely distributed many contemporary sculptures, reproduced not only in bronze but also in Parian ware, enabling many middle-class owners to acquire such pieces in this reduced and reproduced form.
