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Drawing Artefacts

Collection: Society of Antiquaries of London Catalogue of Drawings and Museum Objects

Moving from modern drawing techniques to traditional, among the wonders that the ADS stores, are some exquisite digitised drawings of artefacts from the Society of Antiquaries of London's collection.
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This digitised drawing shows a medieval diptych, two little painted wooden tablets joined in the middle by a hinge. The diptych was created during Edward III's reign and it shows images from the lives of the Virgin and Christ. The drawing is dated to 1796. © Society of Antiquaries of London.
This drawing shows a late medieval cup or mug, decorated with figures of the Apostles and the Crucifixion on the lid. It was one of the objects coming from Glastonbury Abbey owned by the Arundel Family. It was then saved by Lady Arundel in 1633, during the siege of Wardour Castle. The drawing was created in the 19th Century. © Society of Antiquities London.
Digitised drawing of a gold ring from the 16th Century, found in the grave of Bishop Gardiner in Winchester Cathedral. © Society of Antiquaries of London.

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. This collection contains the records and the digitised images of drawings of these objects. Most of these drawing date from the 18th and 19th Century and were drawn by pencil or the watercolour technique. In those years photography was not as available as it is today, so the easiest way to record all the objects was to draw them, as realistically as possible.

This collection contains a queryable database of over 5000 drawings and museum objects from the Society's collections, including digitised images of over 3000 of these items.

"This really is a hidden gem of a collection, its full of wonderful images that make me want to delve into the history of each object." Katie Green, ADS Communications and Access Manager.