The Peacock's Tail

A flask that becomes a little theatre of colour.

Work: from Splendor Solis
Plate: The Peacock Flask
Maker: Attributed to Salomon Trismosin
Date: c. 1582
Source: British Library, Harley MS 3469 · scan: Wikimedia Commons

The Peacock Flask

Wellcome Collection. Public Domain / CC BY 4.0

Format

The full-resolution scan, color-managed to the source plate — yours to print, study, and explore.

Size

$29.00

The story

Within a tall glass flask, a peacock spreads its tail in a spray of colour — the cauda pavonis, the 'peacock's tail,' one of alchemy's most beloved signs. It named the moment when the matter in the vessel was said to flush through a whole spectrum of colours, a shimmering stage on the way to the work's end. Splendor Solis gives it a full page around 1582, the flask standing on a decorated ground within a gilded border. Few images capture the sheer wonder alchemists took in colour so well: the flask as a little theatre, and the peacock as the play.

See it on your wall

The plate, in your home

The Peacock's Tail printed large and framed, hung in rooms like yours. Every edition ships ready to become the piece the room is built around.

About this reproduction

A faithful reproduction of a public-domain plate — from Splendor Solis (1582), held by British Library, Harley MS 3469 · scan: Wikimedia Commons. The work was published before 1931 and is centuries out of copyright.
Printed to order on 200gsm EMA matte art paper; framed pieces sit behind acrylic, no mat.
Color-managed to the source scan; we correct nothing and invent nothing.
Ships in 5–10 business days, rolled in a heavy-wall tube (framed pieces ship flat-packed).
If it arrives less than perfect, we reprint or refund — your choice.

Why our plates cost more than a poster: we print from the highest-resolution scans available, at sizes where the engraving itself becomes visible — the emblem line, the letterpress bite, the registration of colour — on stock made to outlive its owner.

Attribution: Wellcome Collection. Public Domain / CC BY 4.0

From the same hand