Three hands set out together on a single leaf, each crowded with lines, mounts, and little symbols — planets seated at the base of each finger, the palm laid out like a chart of the heavens in miniature. The drawing belongs to an English practical manual of chiromancy dated 1648, the work of a careful anonymous hand. Its author tied the palm to astrology, giving each region its ruling planet, so that reading a hand became a kind of casting a horoscope on skin. We present it as a document of its century's thought — an elaborate, internally consistent system, offered here for the history it records and the strange beauty of its diagram, not for any claim it made.

Maker: Manuscript hand, unknown
Date: 1648
Medium of the original: Plate
Original held by: Wellcome Collection, London
Credit: Wellcome Collection, London
Rights: Public domain, verified
Catalogue number: PA-00468

As chosen: 12 x 16 in, art print, classic frame
Picture	12 x 16 in
Outside size	13.6 x 17.6 in
Depth	0.9 in (22 mm)
Weight	[[REAL PROOF NEEDED: shipped weight per size and frame]]
Hanging	[[REAL PROOF NEEDED: hanging hardware Prodigi fits to this frame]]
Material	Enhanced matte art paper, 200 gsm; acrylic glazing
Made in	Charlotte, North Carolina, by Prodigi

Before a size goes on sale, the file is measured against it: pixels per inch at that size, how much of the picture a crop would lose, tone and sharpness. A size that fails is not offered, so there is nothing to choose wrong.

How the print check works

Sizes offered
Size	dpi	Grade	How it fits
8 x 10 in	247	Excellent	Trimmed 4.7%
11 x 14 in	180	Good	Trimmed 3%
12 x 16 in	162	Good	Trimmed 1.6%

Sizes withheld
Size	Why
8 x 12 in	Wrong shape: a 13% crop
12 x 18 in	Wrong shape: a 13% crop
16 x 20 in	123 dpi; a historical scan is never enlarged
16 x 24 in	Wrong shape: a 13% crop
18 x 24 in	108 dpi; a historical scan is never enlarged
20 x 30 in	Wrong shape: a 13% crop
24 x 30 in	82 dpi; a historical scan is never enlarged
24 x 36 in	Wrong shape: a 13% crop
30 x 40 in	65 dpi; a historical scan is never enlarged
36 x 48 in	54 dpi; a historical scan is never enlarged
40 x 60 in	Wrong shape: a 13% crop

Scanned

2026-10-07

Master file

1,982 x 2,600 px, srgb

Tone

Darks 22, lights 224 of 255; 0% clipped light, 4.3% clipped dark

Colour

0% vivid

Sharpness

8.38

Notes

Shadows clip on 4% of the image: the darkest areas print as solid black
Neutrals lean warm (yellow): the paper and varnish of the original, kept as scanned

Shipping for this piece to a US address is $24.80, the print room’s own rate, charged per piece. Checkout shows the total before you pay.

Every piece is printed after you order it, in Charlotte, North Carolina, and ships from there. For now we ship to US addresses only.

A piece that arrives damaged, misprinted or in the wrong size is replaced at our cost. The details: shipping and returns and replacements.