A Peeler or a Sailor?

I was pleasantly surprised---correction, I was thrilled---when the figure below crossed my path recently. This little man, made in the 1830s, has great presence and stands at a commanding 8.3 inches.  But who might he be?

The figure has excellent provenance, and an old label beneath attests to it previously having been in the stock of that esteemed dealer in English pottery, the late Jonathan Horne. Jonathan's label describes the figure as "a peeler or sailor," but which is he? Wiser heads than mine suggested the figure might be a midshipman, an entry-level officer in the British navy, so let's see if we can settle the question here.

What is a peeler? Today, British police are commonly called "Bobbies’," but originally they were dubbed "Peelers," both names being for Sir Robert Peel (1788 – 1850) who established London's police force in 1829. His officers wore blue tail coats and black top hats, a uniform that was deliberately chosen to ensure they blended in with ordinary folk. Each man carried a wooden rattle to raise the alarm and a wooden truncheon......but this figure carries a sword. Does this rule out his being a policeman? 

​Seems that wooden truncheons and rattles were not prerequisites for peacekeeping then. Some of the men who kept Britain's streets safe in that era carried steel. The sword-carrrying gentleman alongside is a Leeds policeman of between 1836 and 1860. Notice his tall black hat is like the hat the figure wears.

But I can't conclude the figure is a Peeler because those intrepid gentlemen apparently always sported coats with long tails, and our figure has a short jacket nipped at the waist. Given his gentlemanly appearance, might he then be a midshipman? 

Midshipmen in the British navy of that day were largely sons of professional men, as well as members of the peerage and landed gentry. Even Prince William, later King William IV, served as a midshipman in his youth. I have spent hours down the rabbit hole of naval uniforms, and I will spare you the details. Suffice it to say that the figure's hat is consistent with him being a midshipman.  ​

The prints below shows a midshipman of 1828 (left) and 1830 (right), and, like the figure, he has a tall hat and a sword. But, unlike the figure, he wears a coat with long tails. Images courtesy of the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich.

Notice the white patches on the coat collars. Midshipmen then always had white patches on their coat collars, and our figure lacks those. Also, midshipmen always had coats with tails, as befitted their gentlemanly status, and our figure has a short jacket of the sort you might expect to see on a common sailor. Might the figure instead be a sailor?

Common sailor wore a wide range of headgear, so its not improbably for a sailor to have worn a tall black hat rather like the one worn by a midshipman. Like the figure, the sailor illustrated below has a neckerchief, a tall black hat, and a short jacket. He has no sword, but I note that the figure's sword is short, as was the standard for common sailors then. I have to conclude that the figure is indeed a sailor.

Common Sailor, 1820s by Maxim Gauci 1828. Images courtesy of the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich.

Sailors were plentiful in their day, but this figure is very rare. I know of only one other example, and his trousers were painted with stripes. I was reluctant to base my decision on what may well have been artistic license, but, with hindsight I admit the answer was staring me in the face.
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​I can't attribute this sailor to any specific potter, but I have noticed a small number of figures on similar bases, and I strongly suspect they too are of the 1830s period and from the same pot bank. 

Final image (C) The Victoria and Albert Museum, London.