Credit: ©The Royal Society
    Image number: RS.19803

    ‘Relics preserved’

    Date
    1860
    Creator
    Unknown, Artist
    Object type
    Archive reference number
    Material
    Technique
    Dimensions
    height (print): 377mm
    width (print): 251mm
    Subject
    Content object
    Description
    Still life showing four of the historical objects owned by the Royal Society, with a key printed below. (A) Reflecting telescope constructed by Sir Isaac Newton. (B) Sundial made by Sir Isaac Newton when a boy. (C) Mace of the Royal Society. (D) Dr. Priestley’s electrical machine.

    Cutting from the Illustrated Times, 27 October 1860, p.267. Captioned below: ‘RELICS PRESERVED IN THE ROOMS OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY.’

    The accompanying article contains information extracted from Charles Richard Weld’s A history of the Royal Society (London, John W. Parker, 1848). Two of the objects shown (the Newton telescope resting upon the manuscript of Principia Mathematica and the Newton sundial) are from illustrations in Weld’s book, while two others (the Priestley electrical machine and mace) are from generic sources, not resembling the actual objects in the Royal Society’s collections. The illustration is therefore a composite one, drawn from several earlier engravings.
    Object history
    Purchased by the Royal Society.
    Associated place
    <The World>
       > Europe
          > United Kingdom
             > London
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