The circus dinner service was of course based on Laura Knight's long love affair with the circus. Her interest began in the mid 1920s and in 1929 she joined the Mills and Carmo Company on tour for the summer season, in order to devote her time entirely to drawing scenes from daily life under the big top. The clowns in this painting were her friends Randy, Marba and Joe Bert. The painting was purchased from the artist by the Leicester Museum and Art Gallery in 1934, the year she designed the dinner service.