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Alternative Christmas card design, image used for the newly designed covers of the Society's journal and other publications. 5,600 copies sold

In 1793, the Society's Gold Medal was adjudged to Captain William Bligh RN, Master of HMS Providence, for his success, the previous year, 'in conveying from the Islands in the South Sea, to...the Islands in the West Indies subject to the Crown of Great Britain, the Breadfruit Tree, in a growing state'. The picture depicts the scene of Bligh's arrival in the West Indies, where in fact he delivered a great variety of plants, in addition to breadfruit, at St Vincent's and Jamaica. Bligh is the officer in the central foreground, carrying a telescope. Bligh had first visited the South Seas as Captain Cook's sailing-master in the Resolution in 1772-74 and it was during this expedition that the breadfruit trees was discovered at Otaheite. His first attempt to transplant it, whilst Master of the Bounty in 1788-89, ended in the notorious mutiny. a hydrographer and botanist of distinction as well as a thoroughly competent seaman, he was in later life elected a Fellow of the Royal Society. After his unhappy experiences as Governor of New South Wales in 1808-1810, he returned to England, was promoted to Flag rank and died in December 1817. 39,000 copies sold.

Alternative Christmas card, based on a plate from Volume XXIII of the Society's Transactions. 2,100 copies sold.

Illustrations of inventions are reproduced from drawings based on engravings which originally appeared in the Society's Transactions. 33,500 copies sold.

In 1872 the Society offered prizes for improvements in the design of London cabs. Many of the leading cab proprietors and builders of the day put forward their vehicles. These were submitted to extensive testing, including a journey in procession from Kensington to the City and back, by a special committee of the Society, which suggested detailed practical improvements to six of them. Eventually four of the improved cabs were awarded prizes of £30 each. The picture shows the scene in the grounds of Malborough House on 1st November 1872, when the Prince of Wales, President of the Society, inspected the winning cabs. The Journal reports that His Royal Highness 'expressed himself pleased with the vehicles' and 'gave an order for one for use at Sandringham'. The Prince is depicted in the left foreground with members of the Society's Council and on the extreme right is seen the Princess of Wales with her children. 49,500 copies sold.

The Society signed the building agreement with Robert and James Adam on 21st March 1772, and the foundation stone of the House was laid (at its west end) exactly a week later. The work was finished 'most justly and faithfully' to the specifications in April 1774 and the Society took occupation during the following June. The building with pilatered facade which close the view at the end of John Street still survives virtually unchanged. Adelphi Terrace (on the extreme right of the picture) was demolished in 1936. In the group appearing in the left foreground Robert Adam is displaying his design for the front elevation of the House to Members of the Society, whilst his brother James, also carrying plans, points toward the site. 56,700 copies sold.

Reporoduced by permission of the Dean and Chapter, designed by Gordon Drummond, TD, ARMS, member of council. 41,813 copies sold.

The view of the painting as a whole is taken from somewhere near the site of the present Waterloo Bridge and shows the Royal Terrace just after completion. The Terrace was the major portion of the Adam Brothers' Adelphi scheme, which involved the reclamation of this part of the river and the construction also of John Street, Adam Street and Robert Street, which was not yet built when the picture was painted. A number of members of the Society of Arts had Adelphi addresses at this period, including Robert and James Adam and David Garrick. The Terrace was demolished in 1936 to make way for the building then inscribed Adelphi, arrogating the name of an entire district. Of the true Adelphi only the Society's own premises, Robert Street and some houses in Adam Street survive. Reproduced by permission of the Museum of London. 34,000 copies sold

This painting was commissioned from the artist in 1863 by Members' subscriptions as part of the Society's memorial to the Prince Consort's Presidency (1843-1861). Together with a companion portrait of the Prince himself (by C.W. Cope, RA) it was hung in the Great Room. Both pictures remained there until the alterations to the Society's House in 1922-23 when they were removed to their present positions on the main staircase. In Horsley's painting The Queen and her children are shown as they would have been in 1851, the year of the Great Exhibition, which Prince Albert so largely inspired and guided. The young Prince of Wales is holding a plan of the Exhibition building. The other children depicted are (in order of age) The Princess Royal, Princess Alice, Prince Alfred (subsequently Duke of Edinburgh), Princess Helena, Princess Louise and little Prince Arthur (who as Duke of Connaught was to assume the Presidency in 1911). 43,125 copies sold.

Thomas Malton the younger (1748-1804) is best known for his 'Picturesque Tour through the Cities of London and Westminster (1792), etchings of some 100 drawings including a view of the House of the Society of Arts, which had awarded him a premium in 1774, coincidentally, the year of the building's completion. The picture shows on the left, the pedimented block, five lights wide, of what is now No. 18. This, together with the bow fronted building on the right of the picture still survives. But the house next to No. 18, the adjacent, graceful shops and buildings in the Strand, glimpsed at the end of the street, were demolished long ago. The Society did not acquire the freehold of its main house (No. 8) and of the coeval residence for the Secretary (No. 6) until 1922. In December 1977 it purchased the freehold of Nos 4 and 2 and of 18 Adam Street. The Society now owns the largest surviving range of original Adelphi builidngs, all of them designed by Robert and James Adam. The isometric drawing on the back of the card shows the relationship of these various houses. It also indicates the extent of the premises below ground, including huge vaults which extend far beneath John Adam Street. 44,147 copies sold.

During the 1920's the Society mounted a campaign for the preservation of ancient cottages. It was supported by the then Prime Minister, Stanley Baldwin, by Thomas Hardy and by many other prominent men of the day. Considerable funds were raised and amongst those buildings which the Society was successful in saving were the three Thomas a Becket cottages near Worthing, Sussex, the group known as Arlington Row at Bilbury in Gloucestershire and some 30 half timbered cottages near Shrewsbury. The major achievement of the campaign was the purchase in 1929 of West Wycombe, which though picturesque, was then in a very poor and neglected condition and about to be put up for sale in sixty lots. In the course of a few years the village was put into good order and in February 1934 the Society formally handed it over to the National Trust for permanent preservation. A plaque commemorating this achievement, reproduced on the back of the card, is affixed to the archway leading into the courtyard of the former Black Boy Inn in West Wycombe. 67,972 copies sold.

The back of the House as originally completed faced on to the backs of other nearby, now non-existent, buildings and was hardly visible to the general public. The widening of the Strand in the 1920's brought it into a prominence never contemplated by the architects, Robert and James Adam, and revealed its untidy and ugly appearance. Sir George Sutton, then a Vice-President of the Society, undertook to pay the whole cost of re-designing and decorating it. The work was completed in 1927. It was carried out by Aston Webb, whose pilasters carrying a pediment were based on the design of the existing, original John Adam Street facade. The surmounting figure on the skyline was designed by Walter Gilbert. The reliefs in between the pilasters, symbolizing Arts, Manufactures and Commerce, were modelled by E J Bradford. 37,925 copies sold.

Arlington Row dates from the 14th century, originally bult as a wool store it was converted into cottages for weavers in the 17th century. Arlington Row was rescued by the Society during its campaign for the Preservation of Ancient Cottages. In 1927 the owner of the Bibury cottages, unable to keep them, and their beautiful slate roofs, in repair, offered them to the Society for a comparatively small sum. Much more help was needed to repair them but the money was raised through a subscription fund headed by an American James Hazen Hyde. The donor's conditions that the rents should not be raised and that the exisitng tenants remain undisturbed were faithfully kept and in Septmeber 1930 the cottages, fully restored under the direction of Mr P Morley Horder, were formally handed over to the keeping of the Bristol and Gloucestershire Archaeological Trust. In 1949 the property was made over to the National Trust. Speaking at the Annual General Meeting of the campaign in 1929, G K Chesterton described the Society's attitude in saving such ancient dwellings: 'Look, here is a definite creation of man made under more normal, more dignified and more sane social conditions. It is like a Greek temple surviving in an age of barbarians.... This belongs to the history of humanity' Image of the tablet erected by the Society on reverse of card. 59,250 copies sold.

Reproduced from the original in the Society's collection. For this work the artist, then aged 15, was awarded the Society's prize of five guineas, the first premium in its class. On the recommendation of the responsible Committee, 'as a further reward for...her Extraordinary Merit' she received a Silver Medal. The flowerpiece was shown in the first ever public exhibition of contemporary British painters and sculptors held in the Great Room of the Society's premises (in Denmark Court, off the Strand) in 1760. Mary Moser (1744-1819) continued to develop her skill and reputation as a flower painter in her later career. The major surviving example of her work in this genre is a room decorated for Queen Charlotte at Frogmore. She was the daughter of the medallist George Michael Moser, who was to become a founder and the first Keeper of the Royal Academy. She was also a foundation member of the Academy and one of the two original women Academicians, the other being Angelica Kauffman. 60,205 copies sold.

This row of cottages facing St. Mary's Church was restored in 1953-54 by means of a grant made by the Society to the owners, the National Trust. The work used up the balance of the Fund for the Preservation of Ancient Cottages which the Society established after a national campaign in the 1920s and which came to the aid of notable groups of vernacular buildings in various parts of the country. The timber framed Chiddingstone cottages, some of them tile-hung, others partly of brick, date from the 16th and 17th centuries. 80,725 copies sold

Reproduced from the painting in the Society's collection, attributed to Joseph Nash (1808-1878). The Queen, accompanied by Prince Albert, the Princess Royal and Prince Alfred, together with the King of Portugal, appear in the centre of the picture, amidst a huge throng of spectators. The Great Exhibition of 1851, house in Sir Joseph Paxton's original Crystal Palace in Hyde Park, was set up by the Society of Arts as a showcase for the industry of all nations but especially that of Britain, then nearing its apogee. When the exhibition closed the structure was bought by the Crystal Palace Company, dismantled, and in an enlarged form devised by Paxton, re-erected at Sydenham, a labour of an immensity in keeping with the concept of the exhibition itself and with Victorian ambition and confidence. Until its destruction by Fire in November 1936 the 'new' Crystal Palace was the leisure resort of vast numbers of Londoners and a centre for recreational and cultural activities. Particularly notable for fostering musical appreciation in this country were the series of concerts initiated and organized by Sir George Grove, first Secretary to the Crystal Palace Company and Secretary of the Society of Arts at the time of the Great Exhibition. 70,530 copies sold.

The aim of Industry Year is to encourage a better understanding of industry, its essential role and its service to the community. Its purpose will also be to foster the pride of those who work in industry in their own achievement and contribution throughout the world for the provision of food, shelter and warmth; for the care of the sick, old and handicapped; for a better quality of life for the individual and for the community as a whole. 35,147 copies sold.

In 1983 Miss Saunders won the British Museum Design Award , sponsored by the Society, for a series of paper cut-out dolls' houses to be sold at the Bethnal Green Museum. 38,181 copies sold.

This painting was bequeathed to the Society in 1861 by Lady Brown, widow of Captain Sir Samuel Brown, RN (1776-1852), the engineer of the bridge and for many years a member of the Society. Brown invented an improved method of manufacturing links for chain cables which greatly extended their use in the construction of suspension bridges and landing piers. Brown's bar link was first employed in the Union Bridge, completed in July 1820 and subsequently in the Chain Pier at Brighton. The bridge is 18ft wide, 368ft long and the distance between the points of suspension is 432ft. It was the earliest suspension bridge erected in Great Britain calculated for the passage of loaded carriages. The painting itself was executed before the bridge was built to show the effect it would have on the landscape. The large building discernible on the skyline in the centre of the picture, standing high on the northern bank of the Tweed is Paxton House, built to the designs of James and John Adam in the 1750's, with later additions by Robert Reid. Like the bridge, it still stands in fine condition. 34,191 copies sold.

Alison Johnson was the winner of an Attachment award in the Multi-Disciplinary Design Section of the Society's 1984/85 Design Bursaries Competition (fore-runner of the Student Design Awards) 18,841 copies sold.