Charles Sargeant Jagger (1885-1934) studied under Professor Lanteri at the Royal College, and his pre-war sculpture reflects his master's decorative style and shows none of his own later bellicosity. Jagger's earlier training as a metal engraver at Mappin & Webb was of great significance to his attention to detail and line and skilled exploitation of the bas-relief. As with Jagger's drawing from the Rubayat of Omar Khayam, circa 1913, and his 1914 Prix de Rome Bacchanalian Scene (op. cit., figs. 5-6), the present relief hints at the Edwardian decadence and stylised line drawing typified by the work of such artists as Aubrey Beardsley.
Cathal and the Woodfolk, usually ascribed to 1914, but here labelled as 1912, reflects Jagger's artistic eclecticism, revealing his youthful design-directed interest, and a mastery in the medium of freize work. The sinuous forms interlock and rhythmically lead the procession from right to left further animating Jagger's heady celebration of youth. The present plaster relief, of sharp detail, appears to be an early studio plaster, which Jagger reputedly gave to his master Lanteri and a fine example of his carefree panels of the pre-war era.