Online catalogue of drawings and museum objects
Fast access to the online catalogue of drawings and museum objects
In its early years, the Society of Antiquaries of London (founded in 1707) acted as a centre for gathering information on archaeological discoveries and historical objects in private hands. Many items were drawn for its meetings and publications in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries and the Society commissioned draughtsmen who were especially noted for their skills in accurate recording. As a result, the Society's library holds the most important national collection of historic drawings of portable antiquities found in Britain.
Photographs: The Society's collection of drawings includes these depictions of a ring presented by Mary, Queen of Scots, and a unique Anglo-Saxon silver hanging bowl from the River Witham. In each case the original objects are now lost and these drawings constitute our only record.
A database of over 4,100 entries has now been created and over 2,000 of these entries have images attached. The drawings have been taken from albums compiled in rough subject divisions in the 1840s. Some drawings are of objects first shown to members of the Society and now in national museums. Others show outstanding items that are now missing, such as the ring presented by Mary, Queen of Scots, and the unique Anglo-Saxon silver hanging bowl from the River Witham.
The catalogue also includes over 600 objects from the Society's museum collection. A wide variety of objects is represented, including prehistoric weapons and tools, medieval pottery and eighteenth-century portraits. Highlights include a large bronze shield from Scotland, wood blocks and book-binding tools used by William Morris and a clock made by Jacob Zech in Prague in the sixteenth century.
Drawings of Romano-British material will be added shortly, and it is hoped to expand the catalogue further in the future.