Metallurgy and Alchemy

The other day at work I came across the word "metallurgy" and I started to day dream about alchemy and what old lithograph images might be found on the subject.  BibliOdyssey has a beautiful collection of images on their blog under Alchemy Laboratories.  Here are a few of my favorites.

Mineral Illustrations

Velvet malachite from Llandidno, Denbighshire England.  Hand colored copper plate engraving from 1803 depicting a 3.1 inch specimen presumably from the collection of James Sowerby.  Published in Volume 1 of British Mineralogy.  Image and details from The Mineralogical Record.

Velvet Azurite (left) and Malachite (right) from Cornwall.  Hand colored copper plate engraving from 1804 depicting 2.4 inch specimen from the collection of Philip Rashleight and 1.8 inch specimen from the collection of Richard Phillips, respectively.  Published in Volume 1 of British Mineralogy.  Image and details from The Mineralogical Record.

Inspiration

While looking for new inspiration images for my next concept series on sea life I came across this fascinating radiolaria illustration.  If only Ernst Haeckel could see how many people he has touched and inspired.