Making History: Antiquaries In Britain, 1707–2007
15 Sep—2 Dec 2007
In the Main Galleries
This exhibition explores the work and achievement of the Fellowship of the Society of Antiquaries of London since its foundation in the early eighteenth century to the present day.
Shield from Ayrshire (detail), Late Bronze Age. Bronze, 68cm.
Organised by the Royal Academy of Arts and the Society of Antiquaries of London to celebrate the Society's tercentenary, the exhibition showcases treasures from Britain’s oldest Learned Society concerned with the study of the past and is complemented by works from national and regional museums.
It features works of art, antiquities and manuscripts of unique historical importance, such as a processional cross of King Richard III and his defeated Yorkist army recovered from the battlefield of Bosworth (1485). Also on show will be the earliest known medieval manuscript illustrations of Stonehenge, as well as drawings and paintings of this and other historic sites and monuments by great artists such as Constable, Turner, Girtin and Blake.
A selection from the Society’s extraordinary collection of early English royal portraits from Henry VI to Mary Tudor will be displayed together in public for the first time.
