Thomas Hill, Portrait of Humfrey Wanley, 1711, Oil on canvas, 122 x 102 cm. Society of Antiquaries of London. © Society of Antiquaries of London / John Hammond

LONDON.-The Royal Academy of Arts presents Making History: Antiquaries in Britain , 1707 – 2007, on view through December 2, 2007. The exhibition explores the work and achievement of the Society of Antiquaries of London over the past three hundred years since its foundation in the early eighteenth century to the present day. The exhibition consists of 190 works, and showcases for the first time, treasures from Britain ’s oldest Learned Society concerned with the study of the past. It features unique works of art, antiquities and manuscripts of national historical importance, from one of the oldest museum collections in this country, including a Yorkist processional cross recovered from the battlefield of Bosworth (1485), the inventory of Henry VIII’s possessions at the time of his death and an early copy of Magna Carta. Also on show are paintings of ancient sites and landscapes by Constable, Turner, Blake and an extraordinary collection of English royal portraits from Henry VI to Mary Tudor. In addition there are the only surviving visual records of objects long since lost or destroyed.
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