works

Galleries and Reading Room

Library

Wellcome Café

Wellcome Kitchen

Wellcome Shop

To make your visit as safe and enjoyable as possible, you’ll need to follow our safety measures inside our venue, including wearing a face covering unless you’re exempt. Find out how we're keeping you safe. You no longer need to book a ticket to enter the museum or library.

We’re undertaking research with website visitors to find out some more about you and what you thought about your visit. This survey will take less than 10 minutes to complete. Thank you for your time!

What brought you to our website today?

Engravings, all or most Netherlandish, 16th and 17th centuries, of allegorical and historical subjects

Album of engravings bound in a mediaeval music manuscript of nine staves. Mixed media, ca. 1500-1700 (?).

26 prints (on 23 leaves) : process prints, with watercolour, mounted on cream paper, bound in grey paper covers and sewn with matching grey cord ; mounts 25 x 32.5 cm

Panama-Pacific International Exposition, San Francisco: the pavilions and setting of the exposition. Coloured process prints, 1915.

The album contains 79 folios, foliated from left to right, with a drawing on each recto and a blank page on each verso. The drawings are drawn with brushes of different fineness, and form three sequences
Folios 1-32 are drawn with ink brush with pencil outline underneath, and lettering written on the margin of the page naming the figures. The figures are all taken from the epic fantasy novel Fengshen yanyi (The investiture of the gods) by Xu Zhonglin, a Ming Dynasty writer (16th century). The novel tells of the overthrow of the tyrant emperor Zhou at the end of Shang Dynasty by a group of strategists, generals and deities who were later given investiture as gods according to their contribution to the political revolt. Some figures are mythological or legendary, whereas others have an archetype in ancient history around the end of the Shang Dynasty and the beginning of the Zhou Dynasty
Folios 33-71 are drawn with ink brush, but without pencil outline. The contours are of greater sharpness and clarity with lettering close to or within the figures, identifying them. All figures are taken from the classical novel Shui Hu Zhuan The water margin), one of the four classical novels in Chinese literature, written by Shi Nai'an in the Ming Dynasty. The story is set in the Song Dynasty and tells of how a group of 108 outlaws gathers at the marsh in Mount Liang to form an army before they are granted an amnesty by the government to fight against foreign invaders. Most of the figures are fictitious based on historical archetypes
Folios 72-79 are drawn in coloured inks with calligraphy vertically written from right to left on the corner of the page. The style is less constrained, with free lines and colour washes. These scenes are taken from history and biographies; the figures are usually well-known literati and officials in Chinese history

1 album (approximately 75 drawings) : pen and ink on paper ; sheets 31.5 x 24.7 cm

Chinese historical and mythological characters. Album of drawings by a Chinese artist.

Unnumbered colour plate mounted on front cover (not repeated inside). Each plate is accompanied by a guard sheet with descriptive letterpress. Final plate folds out showing aerial view of the whole exposition site
Description of the tenth plate (Palace of Liberal Arts and Tower of Jewels by night) describes "flood lighting" in terms which suggest it was a novelty

32 prints : process prints, printed in colours, mounted on light brown paper and sewn with matching brown cord ; mounts 25.5 x 33 cm

Panama-Pacific International Exposition, San Francisco: the pavilions and setting of the exposition. Colour process prints, 1915.

17 paintings : watercolour + album (17 folios 29.4 x 43.5 cm approximately)

Trades and occupations in India. Watercolours, 18--.

1 album (33 leaves, approximately 650 prints) : lithographs, printed in colours ; album 36.6 x 25.6 cm

Labels for pharmaceutical packaging. Colour lithographs.

Paintings by Annibale Carracci in the Palazzo Farnese, Rome. Etchings by P. Aquila after Annibale Carracci.

9 paintings : gouache on rice paper + album ;

A Chinese miscellany. Paintings by a Chinese artist, ca. 1850.

Celebrated Chinese characters. Paintings by a Chinese artist, ca. 1850.

22 paintings : gouache + album (22 folios 27.3 x 37.1 cm approximately)

Wellcome uses cookies.

More filters

Active filters:

Album of engravings bound in a mediaeval music manuscript of nine staves. Mixed media, ca. 1500-1700 (?).

Panama-Pacific International Exposition, San Francisco: the pavilions and setting of the exposition. Coloured process prints, 1915.

Chinese historical and mythological characters. Album of drawings by a Chinese artist.

Panama-Pacific International Exposition, San Francisco: the pavilions and setting of the exposition. Colour process prints, 1915.

Trades and occupations in India. Watercolours, 18--.

Labels for pharmaceutical packaging. Colour lithographs.

Paintings by Annibale Carracci in the Palazzo Farnese, Rome. Etchings by P. Aquila after Annibale Carracci.

A Chinese miscellany. Paintings by a Chinese artist, ca. 1850.

Celebrated Chinese characters. Paintings by a Chinese artist, ca. 1850.

Hindu deities and their manifestations. Gouache paintings by an Indian artist, 18--.

Stay in the know

Wellcome collection

Finding us:

Opening times:

Today's opening times

Wellcome uses cookies.

Search the collections

More filters

Active filters:

Album of engravings bound in a mediaeval music manuscript of nine staves. Mixed media, ca. 1500-1700 (?).

Panama-Pacific International Exposition, San Francisco: the pavilions and setting of the exposition. Coloured process prints, 1915.

Chinese historical and mythological characters. Album of drawings by a Chinese artist.

Panama-Pacific International Exposition, San Francisco: the pavilions and setting of the exposition. Colour process prints, 1915.

Trades and occupations in India. Watercolours, 18--.

Labels for pharmaceutical packaging. Colour lithographs.

Paintings by Annibale Carracci in the Palazzo Farnese, Rome. Etchings by P. Aquila after Annibale Carracci.

A Chinese miscellany. Paintings by a Chinese artist, ca. 1850.

Celebrated Chinese characters. Paintings by a Chinese artist, ca. 1850.

Hindu deities and their manifestations. Gouache paintings by an Indian artist, 18--.

Stay in the know

Wellcome collectionWellcome Collection

Finding us:

Opening times:

Today's opening times

Wellcome collection