Search highlight objects from the collection

Joseph Swain, Amor Mundi, a wood-engraving after Frederick Sandys

Joseph Swain (1820-1909) was one of the most prolific wood-e…

King Charles I on Horseback, a woodcut

This is an example of the cheapest sort of print available i…

Louis Carmontelle, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart with his father Leopold and his sister Marie Anne, watercolour and bodycolour

Mozart, aged eight, is shown here at the harpsichord - poise…

Louis Philippe Boitard, The Imports of Great Britain from France, etching

It is surprising that this satire on the British taste for a…

Martin Droeshout, William Shakespeare (1564-1616), an engraving

This signed and dated engraving by Martin Droeshout (1601- a…

Mary Delany, Crinum Zeylanicum: Asphodil Lilly, a paper collage

Mary Delany began making paper collages, or ‘mosaicks' as sh…

Paul Sandby, Street Crier 7: Rare Mackerel, etching

Series of prints of street vendors with their characteristic…

Paul Sandby, The Artist's Studio, a watercolour and bodycolour drawing on blue paper

Both Paul Sandby (1730-1809) and his brother Thomas (1721-98…

Ronald Searle, George Cruikshank, pen and black ink sketch, over graphite

Ronald Searle (born in 1920) is an internationally famous ca…

Samuel Palmer, Classical River Scene, watercolour and gouache on card

Samuel Palmer (1805-81) was one of Britain's greatest artist…

Samuel Palmer, Drawing for The Bright Cloud, Indian ink with scratching out

Samuel Palmer (1805-81) was one of Britain's greatest artist…

Samuel Palmer, Sketchbook: Donkey-like Animal and Tree Studies, brown ink, graphite and watercolour

Samuel Palmer (1805-81) was one of Britain's greatest artist…

Samuel Palmer, The Sleeping Shepherd - Early Morning, etching on chine collé

Samuel Palmer (1805-81) was one of Britain's greatest artist…

Samuel Palmer, View at Tintagel, black chalk, watercolour and gouache on off-white wove paper

Samuel Palmer (1805-81) was one of Britain's greatest artist…

Sir David Wilkie, Nude Woman on a Ladder, a black and red chalk drawing with watercolour

Wilkie (1785-1841) began his artistic training in 1799 at th…

Sir John Tenniel, Alice's Evidence, a proof wood-engraving by the Dalziel Brothers.

Here Alice catches the edge of her skirt on the jury-box, ti…

Sir Richard Hoare, a mezzotint after Allan Ramsay

Sir Richard Hoare (1709-1754) was the grandson of the founde…

Thomas and Paul Sandby, The Piazza, Covent Garden, watercolour and pen and ink over graphite

Covent Garden, to the north of the Strand, took its name fro…

Thomas Sandby, Whitehall, watercolour with pen and ink over graphite

Sandby (1723-1798) presents a calm, expansive view of Whiteh…

Trade card of Philip Fruchard, Coal Merchant, an etching

Philip Fruchard's trade card shows coal-heavers taking coal …

Trait de Sensibilité ('Act of Sensibility'), an etching with hand-colouring

The late eighteenth to early nineteenth century was the heyd…

W. Chambers, The Townley Collection in the Dining Room at Park Street, Westminster, a watercolour

Charles Townley (1737-1805) was a Lancashire Catholic with a…

William Hogarth, a preliminary drawing for Plate 8 of Industry and Idleness

In the narrative of Industry and Idleness , Francis Goodchil…

William Hogarth, A Rake's Progress, plate 8, a print

This is the last of eight prints making up Hogarth's series …

William Hogarth, Gin Lane, etching and engraving

The scene is set in the poverty-stricken area to the north o…

William Hogarth, Gulielmus Hogarth, a print

This is an unfinished proof engraving, before the lettering …

William Hogarth, Marriage A-la-Mode, Plate II, etching and engraving

Hogarth (1697-1764) does not give an address for the fiction…

William Wynne Ryland, Dormio Innocuus, an engraving after a painting by Angelica Kauffman

Early Victorian tea set

In England matching pottery and porcelain tea wares began to…

Football shirt

Didier Drogba was born in the Ivory Coast in West Africa. As…

Iron Age gold coin of Anarevito and Eppillus

The Hockley Pendant

This man died more than five thousand years ago. The reconst…

Silver siege money of the English Civil Wars

One of the main tasks of an army in the sixteenth and sevent…

Minutes of the first meeting of the Trustees of The British Museum

The British Museum Act of 1753 set up a Board of Trustees to…

Carlisle City and District Banking Company, proof of £5 note

Early banknotes were printed from copper plates and usually …

Coin dies and silver penny of Edward III

Coins in medieval Europe were always struck using iron dies.…

Silver 'Lima' crown (5 shillings) of George II

During the War of the Austrian Succession, Great Britain was…

Trial striking of a silver 1 baht of Rama IV Mongkut

Mongkut (reigned 1851-68), famous in the West as the hero of…

Blue glass jar

This small, sturdy glass vessel is decorated with horizontal…

Redware milk jug and cover, made by the Wedgwood factory

Redware, or red stoneware, was a popular type of unglazed po…

Silver 'thistle' brooch

This brooch was found by a boy in a field near Penrith in 17…

The Wilton Cross

This pendant displays the reverse of a lightweight solidus o…

Gladiator's helmet

This heavy bronze helmet originally had a tinned surface, gi…

Hoard of Iceni silver coins

This hoard consists of 872 silver coins of the Iron Age Icen…

Pottery jars, dishes and bowls

Towards the middle of the second century AD, a carefully-pla…

John Constable, London from Hampstead, with a double rainbow, a watercolour

Constable and his wife Maria first moved to Hampstead in 181…

Owen Jones, The Great Exhibition, a watercolour with pen and ink

The Great Exhibition (or the International Exhibition of the…

Wenceslaus Hollar, Winter, an etching

The young woman is warmly dressed against the cold. She wear…

Double-edged sword

This double-edged sword was found in the River Witham near L…

Man's costume

This man's costume is from the North American Plains. The sh…

William Alexander, Installing the Bust of Ramesses II in the Egyptian Sculpture Gallery, a drawing

The colossal stone bust of the Egyptian king Ramesses II wei…