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| Richard Wilson Portrait of Thomas Jenkins 18th century drawing Morgan Library, New York |
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| George Bickham the Younger after Canaletto Monument to the Great Fire of 1666 1752 hand-colored etching British Museum |
"– No doubt, Sir, – there is a whole chapter wanting here – and a chasm of ten pages made in the book by it – but the book-binder is neither a fool, or a knave, or a puppy – nor is the book a jot more imperfect (at least upon that score) – but, on the contrary, the book is more perfect and complete by wanting the chapter, then having it, as I shall demonstrate to your reverences in this manner. – I question first, by-the-bye, whether the same experiment might not be made as successfully upon sundry other chapters – but there is no end, an' please your reverences, in trying experiments upon chapters – we have had enough of it. – So there's an end of that matter."
– from Tristram Shandy by Laurence Sterne (1760)
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| James Barry Study for Adam ca. 1792-95 drawing British Museum |
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| Anonymous French artist Set design for the final scene of Mozart's Don Giovanni 18th century drawing British Museum |
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| James Barry Study for Ecce Homo ca. 1773 drawing British Museum |
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| Carrington Bowles (publisher) Susanna and the Elders ca. 1780-95 hand-colored mezzotint British Museum |
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| Anonymous Flemish artist Two Amorini 18th century drawing British Museum |
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| Carrington Bowles (publisher) after Anthony van Dyck The Clipping of the Wings of Love 1780s hand-colored mezzotint British Museum |
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| Louis-Joseph Le Lorrain Capriccio with Obelisk 1750 etching National Gallery of Art (U.S.) |
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| John Flaxman Amorini in relief 1787 drawing British Museum |
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| John Boydell (publisher) David Garrick's villa, called Hampton House 1793 hand-colored etching British Museum |
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| Anonymous print-maker Invitation to David Garrick's Funeral 1779 etching British Museum |
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| Edward Francis Burney Garrick Memorial Concert 1779 drawing British Museum |
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| Robert Adam Design for a Monument to David Garrick 1779 drawing British Museum |
"The old man ... became something still more mysterious and impressive: a stone abandoned in a field, cut by an unknown hand, according to unknown rules. Such survivors, deprived of descendants, have faces that are striking in their isolation. Their uselessness is majestic, and the wisdom they perhaps do not possess and surely do not wish to hand on gazes at us in silence, like every memory that agrees to destroy itself."
– a description of Prince Talleyrand, from The Ruin of Kasch by Roberto Calasso, translated by William Weaver and Stephen Sartarelli (Harvard University Press, 1994)