Byrsa Londinensis vulgo the Royal Exchange (Royal Exchange, London)

Wenceslaus Hollar

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

View of the commercial institution in the City of London, built by Sir Thomas Gresham on land between Cornhill and Threadneedle Streets, provided by the City Corporation. He modeled it on the Bourse in Antwerp, and Flemish-Italianate buildings surrounded the open courtyard used for trading, with covered arcades used in wet weather. The bell tower was surmounted with a grasshopper.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Department’s vast collection of works on paper comprises approximately 21,000 drawings, 1.2 million prints, and 12,000 illustrated books created in Europe and the Americas from about 1400 to the present day. Since its foundation in 1916, the Department has been committed to collecting a wide range of works on paper, which includes both pieces that are incredibly rare and lauded for their aesthetic appeal, as well as material that is more popular, functional, and ephemeral. The broad scope of the department’s collecting encourages questions of connoisseurship as well as those pertaining to function and context, and demonstrates the vital role that prints, drawings, and illustrated books have played throughout history.

Metropolitan Museum of Art