The Tower Furnace

A square stone furnace burning at two doors, crowned with a ring of vessels and flasks round a central pot.

Work: Ymage de Vie, traictant des secrez des philosophes sur la fleur d'alkemie (Wellcome MS 446)
Artist / creator: Unknown French scribes; text attributed to Raymond Lull
Origin & date: France, 15th century; French and Latin
Held by: Wellcome Collection, London (MS 446)

Format

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The story

A square stone furnace stands on a broad base, fire showing red through two arched openings in its front. On top sits a ring of vessels round a large central pot: small flasks, a jug, a cone, each with a lick of flame at its mouth. Spare parts float in the air beside it, a lidded jug, two cones and a funnel on a pipe. This is one of the full-page furnace drawings in the Wellcome's fifteenth-century Ymage de Vie, a French and Latin collection of alchemical processes credited to Raymond Lull and bought at Sotheby's in 1914. A furnace that heated many vessels at once from one fire was a craftsman's answer to the cost of charcoal.

About this reproduction

Faithful reproduction of a public-domain work, sourced from Wellcome Collection, London (MS 446)’s open-access release.
Printed to order on archival cotton-rag stock, pigment inks rated 100+ years.
Color-managed to the source scan.
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Image courtesy of the Wellcome Collection, London, licensed CC BY 4.0.

In situ