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Stories

  • Article

Illuminated manuscripts, illuminating medicines

From rare bugs to exorbitantly priced plant parts, find out more about the artistic and medical uses of pigments from the past.

  • Book extract

What the wind can bring

In this extract from ‘This Book is a Plant’, Amanda Thomson shares a newfound fascination with flowers, and reveals why our relationship with plants can also be complicated.

  • Article

Ginger’s role in cures and courtroom battles

Some people will use a dose of ginger to help with hangovers – but it hasn’t always been a friend to the thirsty.

  • Article

The house of Joan

The longueurs of hospital stays and enforced inactivity were the spur to Joan’s precise tailoring skills and flamboyant creations, all to the benefit of her fashion-loving sisters.

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Images

  • A tea plantation in China: female workers trim the harvested leaves, which are brought to them in paniers by a male worker. Gouache, China, 1800/1850.
  • A tea plantation in China: workers load boxes of tea for export onto rafts. Gouache, China, 1800/1850.
  • A tea plantation in China: tea is shown being weighed, while workers tread down congou tea into chests and a man in Western dress converses with a senior plantation worker. Gouache, China, 1800/1850.
  • A tea plantation in China: workers grinding tea and rolling it into balls. Gouache, China, 1800/1850.
  • A tea plantation in China: workers pick the tea leaves and place them in baskets. Gouache, China, 1800/1850.
  • A tea plantation in China: workers prepare the soil for planting tea, while others rest nearby and eat from bowls with chopsticks. Gouache, China, 1800/1850.
  • A tea plantation in China: workers seated on a verandah grade the tea leaves by hand. Gouache, China, 1800/1850.
  • A tea plantation in China: workers are shown weaving baskets. Gouache, China, 1800/1850.
  • A tea plantation in China: workers water the young tea plants. Gouache, China, 1800/1850.
  • A tea plantation in China: workers make tea chests. Coloured aquatint, early 19th century.
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