Picture stones were considered pieces of artwork made by nature. The print reproduced in this drawer features a “grapholithi, or figured slate” and an “Agate with the Eclipse of the Sun” much like the specimens displayed with and above it.
Image background taken from bowl above.
Image taken from Jan van Rymsdyk,
Andreas van Rymsdyk, and Peter Boyle
Museum Britannicum or
A display in thirty two plates, in antiquities
and natural curiosities, in that noble and
magnifi cent cabinet, the British Museum:
after the original designs from nature
London, 1778.
