| RefNo | CLP/16/53/5 |
| Level | Item |
| Title | Figure, 'The draught of an old chimney piece at Widgel Hall in Hertfordshire [England]' by John [Mordaunt] Cope |
| Date | 1734 |
| Description | A figure in black ink showing the arch of a chimney piece described by Cope, with two crests reading 'M' and '16' respectively and carved leaf patterns between them. The chimney piece measures 4 feet 3.5 inches. Beneath the figure, Cope writes: 'The chimney peice [sic] is of English oak plank which is now very firm, it nowhere appearing decayed, tho now 718 years old and never painted. By the date M16 [1016] upon it is a plain demonstration that the Arabian or Indian figures [Eastern Arabic numerals] were then used here in England, of the use of which figures here we have no earlier account before the above than that of 1090 a date mentioned in the Philosophical Transactions which is an age after the chimney peice was made. N B the letters and figures project out above a quarter of an inch.'
Subject: Antiquities
Read to the Royal Society on 4 April 1734
Published in Philosophical Transactions as ''An extract of a letter from Mr. John Cope to Dr. Alexander Stuart, Physician in Ordinary to her Majesty, Fellow of the College of Physicians, and of the Royal Society, London, concerning an ancient date found at Widgel-Hall in Hertfordshire' |
| Language | English |
| Extent | 1p |
| Format | Print |
| PhysicalDescription | Ink on paper |
| Digital images | View item on Science in the Making |
| AccessStatus | Open |
| RelatedMaterial | DOI: 10.1098/rstl.1735.0023 |
| RelatedRecord | RBO/19/24 |
Fellows associated with this archive
| Code | PersonName | Dates |
| NA867 | Cope; Sir; John Mordaunt (1731 - 1779) | 1731 - 1779 |