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| George Cruikshank The Mermaid ! Now Exhibiting at the Turf Coffee House 1822 hand-colored etching British Museum |
"A mummified creature poised erect on the curve of a fish's body, just above the tail, stands in a glass case, directed to the left. The grotesque and hideous head of simian type is bent back and gazes upwards; arms, hands, shoulders, and pendent breasts are quasi-human, the body that of a fish of the salmon type with fins curiously arranged in pairs."
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| Issac Robert Cruikshank The Mermaid (two views) 1822 etching British Museum |
"This object, bought by a sea-captain in Batavia for 5,000 dollars, was believed to be concocted of 'the blue faced monkey' and the prepared skin and fins of a salmon." The Times, 16 Nov. 1822
"It was the subject of an application to the Chancellor to prevent its removal, ownership being in dispute between the sea-captain and the owner of seven-eighths of his brig, which the former had sold, buying the creature with the proceeds."
– curator's notes from the British Museum
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| James Barry The Angelic Guards ca. 1802 etching British Museum |
"Angels seated at the edge of a cliff with clouds below to right and all around, the foremost with one foot on a rock, a key at his feet, holding his spear in both hands, others pointing outwards to right with spears. Figures surrounding the angels include, in a row above them, left to right – Charles I, Jean-Baptiste Colbert, Cassiodorus and another monk, Francis I and Agrippa; top row, left to right – Sir Joshua Reynolds, Giles Hussey, vestal and angel, Annibale Carracci, Domenichino, and an unidentified youth."
– curator's notes from the British Museum
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| Max Klinger Secession (cover illustration) 1893 etching, mezzotint British Museum |
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| Pietro Santi Bartoli Tomb of Paolo Veronese (died 1588) ca. 1650-1700 etching British Museum |
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| Giovanni Battista Mercati Roundel with Roman Emperor hunting Bear from a relief on the Arch of Constantine 1642 etching dedicated to Francesco Borromini, Roman architect British Museum |
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| Giovanni Battista Mercati Executioner presenting the Head of John the Baptist to Salome 1626 etching dedicated to Nicolao Alemanno, Prefect of the Vatican Library British Museum |
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| Giovanni Battista Mercati St Bibiana refusing to sacrifice to pagan deities 1626 etching dedicated to Marcello Sacchetti, Roman art patron British Museum |
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| Giovanni Battista Mercati Roundel with St Catherine of Alexandria seated in Glory ca. 1620-40 etching British Museum |
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| Wenceslaus Hollar View of Whitehall and Lambeth 1640s etching Teylers Museum, Haarlem |
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| Wenceslaus Hollar Spring 1643 etching Royal Collection, Windsor |
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| Claude Mellan Sheet of 20 portraits of Mercedarian martyrs (religious order dedicated to ransoming Christian captives from the Moors) ca. 1624-36 etching British Museum |
The individual portraits with names and dates of martyrdom have been cut out of a larger engraving and pasted individually onto a separate sheet. The originally engraving printed at Rome under the sponsorship of the Mercedarians contained double this number of portraits. The British Museum preserves copies of the others also, pasted onto a partner sheet.
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| Jean Mignon Transformation of Actaeon ca. 1540-50 etching Museum Kunstpalast, Düsseldorf |
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| Battista Franco Bacchantes with Apollo and Daphne ca. 1530-61 etching British Museum |