London 1753 at the BM

In 1753 Britain was a dominant player on the world scene. London was the hub of what was within ten years to become the first British Empire, extending its power from India to the Caribbean and North America. It was the largest city in the Western world with a population of 700,000 and growing fast. ‘London 1753’ at the British Museum is a major new exhibition, which celebrates the Museum’s 250th anniversary with a survey of the city in which the Museum was founded.

The British Museum has a huge collection of material that allows us to look at London through the eyes of people of the time: prints, drawings, coins, medals, porcelain, glass, jewellery, watches and other luxury goods made in London, as well as the advertising handbills issued by their makers. Besides London-made products, there are objects imported from around the world – porcelain brought on six-month voyages from China for Mayfair tea-tables, ancient sculpture for collectors with a passion for the classical past, curiosities like a fake ‘merman’ made in Japan from the body of a monkey and a fish’s tail.