Catalogue Title Page

• A Catalogue of Drugs, Pharmaceutical Preparations Chemical Tests &c. &c. &c.
• Prepared & Sold by T. Morson, Operative Chemist
• 19 Southampton Row, Russell Square, London
• Engraved by W. J. White, Sc. Brownlow St. Holborn
• 1825 · 125 x 220mm (5 x 8½in)
•  

An elaborate engraved title page, printed in rich black ink and executed in copperplate script, evocative of the refined style championed by 18th-century writing masters. At the heart of the design is a finely detailed engraving by William Johnstone White, inspired by David Teniers the Younger’s depictions of alchemists.

The scene captures the solitary intensity of an elderly alchemist in his dimly lit workshop, hunched intently over a small bellows that feeds the flames of a furnace. His bespectacled eyes focus on his mysterious experiment, an almost trance-like absorption in the pursuit of the elusive "Grand Arcanum"—the great secret of nature.

Surrounding him is a fascinating array of alchemical paraphernalia: glass jars, flasks, retorts, and crucibles, each hinting at the intricate processes of distillation, sublimation, and calcination. On the stone floor beside him rests a pestle and mortar, emblematic of the physical labour involved in his craft, alongside an ancient, open tome inscribed with the tantalising promise of transformation and enlightenment.

Alchemy, often dismissed as mystical folly, played a pivotal role as the forerunner to modern chemistry. The alchemists’ meticulous experiments and empirical observations not only laid the groundwork for scientific discovery but also gifted the medieval and early modern worlds with innovations like vivid pigments used to illuminate manuscripts.

Their search for the Philosopher’s Stone—a substance believed to transmute base metals into gold and grant eternal life—may have been metaphorical as much as literal, symbolising humanity’s relentless quest to unlock nature’s mysteries and transcend the ordinary.

This engraved title page serves as both a document of pharmaceutical trade and a nostalgic homage to the alchemists' enduring spirit of inquiry, a bridge between the esoteric past and the rational scientific revolution to come.