Every print is checked at your sizeTrade programme Ask the Curator

Holbein’s Design for a Clocksalt — 1543

Name: Holbein’s Design for a Clocksalt — 1543
Brand: The Complication
SKU: PA-00542

Hans Holbein the Younger, 1543

The ComplicationPA-00542Tear sheet

Display only

No print size passed the check for this piece: at 8 x 10 in, Wrong shape: a 35% crop. We would rather show it than sell a soft print.

See pieces like it you can buy

In 1543 Hans Holbein the Younger — court painter to Henry VIII — drew this design for a clocksalt: a table ornament combining clock, hourglass, sundial, and compass, intended as Anthony Denny's New Year's gift to the king. It is horology at the moment it belonged to the fine arts: a timekeeper conceived by one of the greatest draughtsmen who ever lived, in pen, ink, and wash. The British Museum holds the sheet; the king received the object; only the drawing survives.

Maker: Hans Holbein the Younger
Date: 1543
Medium of the original: Plate
Original held by: British Museum, London
Credit: British Museum, London · via Wikimedia Commons
Rights: Public domain, verified
Catalogue number: PA-00542

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 withheld
Size	Why
8 x 10 in	Wrong shape: a 35% crop
8 x 12 in	Wrong shape: a 22% crop
11 x 14 in	Wrong shape: a 34% crop
12 x 16 in	Wrong shape: a 30% crop
12 x 18 in	Wrong shape: a 22% crop
16 x 20 in	Wrong shape: a 35% crop
16 x 24 in	Wrong shape: a 22% crop
18 x 24 in	Wrong shape: a 30% crop
20 x 30 in	Wrong shape: a 22% crop
24 x 30 in	Wrong shape: a 35% crop
24 x 36 in	Wrong shape: a 22% crop
30 x 40 in	Wrong shape: a 30% crop
36 x 48 in	Wrong shape: a 30% crop
40 x 60 in	Wrong shape: a 22% crop