According to the inscription, Hans of Zürich was a goldsmith and probably one of Holbein’s craftsmen or merchant friends. Hollar’s etching records a painted portrait by Holbein, now lost.

Hollar shows the date of the original painting as 1532, the year of Holbein’s return to London and the period in which he was taking commissions from the Hanseatic merchants.

The inscription records that Anthony Denny gave a clocksalt after this design to Henry VIII as a New Year’s gift in 1545 (old calendar 1544). Two notes are in the handwriting of the royal astronomer Nikolaus Kratzer, who must have assisted Holbein with the design.

In the centre of the clocksalt is an hourglass, while on top two putti hold curved metal sheets forming sundials. A clock with a blazing sun at its centre rests on their heads, surmounted by a crown. A compass, shown in the separate drawing to the left, would have been placed above the hour glass.

This etching of Sir Anthony Denny (1501–49) was made by the Bohemian artist Wenceslaus Hollar in 1647, from a portrait by Holbein in the collection of the Earl of Arundel which is now lost. The inscriptions indicate the original was painted in 1541, with Denny’s age given as twenty-nine; this must be an error as Denny would have been thirty-nine or forty at this date.

In 1538 Denny was promoted to the highest position of attendance on Henry VIII, as one of the King’s two chief gentlemen of the chamber.

William Parr (1513–71), the younger brother of Queen Catherine Parr, became Marquess of Northampton in 1547. The extensive colour notes in Holbein’s hand show that he was dressed in white satin and white and purple velvet. He also wears a blank medallion suspended from a chain and a fashionable hat badge (see the example in the case nearby).

A sketch top left shows a figure in classical armour who may be St George fighting the dragon; this may be intended as the subject of the hat badge rather than the medallion. Another sketch indicates details of the links of a chain including the word ‘MORS’ or ‘death’.

The top three of these designs for jewelled pendants illustrate the Old Testament story of Hagar and Ishmael in the desert: their thirst was relieved by an angel and the miraculous appearance of a well, sketched separately on the left. The fourth design shows Abraham making a treaty with King Abimelech over an altar with an inset jewel.

Starting with circles drawn with a compass, as the hole visible in the empty circle top right shows, Holbein invented three dynamic alternative compositions, clarifying poses and details in the sketches, as well as doodling comic figures beside them.

The startled-looking Joan or Jane Ashley or Astley, Lady Meutas (died 1577), married the courtier Peter Meutas before 9 October 1537.

To the right of the portrait drawing Holbein has inserted a schematic sketch of hands, including a heart-shaped leaf used by German painters as a symbol for green; here it symbolizes an emerald in a ring. The same sign also appears in the centre of Lady Meutas’s large oval medallion. This is sketched with a design closely resembling one of Holbein’s three drawings for a Mary Magdalen jewel shown nearby.

These three drawings of the penitent Mary Magdalen in the wilderness were probably originally on the same sheet but have been cut out separately. A very similar image to one of these drawings is seen in reverse on the medallion worn by Lady Meutas in the drawing shown nearby.

It is not clear whether Holbein had designed such a medallion for Lady Meutas, which she then wore in her portrait, or whether these drawings might have been part of the preparation for her portrait. In that case the variation would suggest that this was an imaginary medallion rather than an actual one.

The pendant with a woman in Tudor dress has been associated with the jewel worn in a portrait of 1569 (Tate), which may represent Helena Snakenborg, third wife of William Parr, Marquess of Northampton (shown nearby); his family may have commissioned the jewel.

Two of these designs, one of which includes cornucopia, are similar to marriage pendants and brooches known from surviving examples and portraits of the late fifteenth century, probably made in Germany for export.

Holbein may have been producing variants of a well-known type for German goldsmiths in London serving the English market.

These very finished designs for pendant jewels nearly all include either chains or ribbons. Henry VIII wears similar pendants in his portraits by Holbein (see Room 7). Holbein may have designed these for him, but it also seems conceivable that these drawings are records of actual objects rather than designs, such as other court artists of the period were instructed to make.

The crosses Holbein has drawn on the faces of the small cherubs are first indications of the foreshortening and direction of the figures in this fluid working drawing. A mermaid adorns the lower part of the frame, with a pearl below, an indication of the small scale of the work. It was perhaps intended to be worn on a chain to frame a miniature, or was possibly intended as a frame for a small mirror.

The dynamism of the design would have required a highly skilled goldsmith.

All five designs were evidently intended to be executed in black enamel over gold, allowing the gold to create a series of newly fashionable interlaced arabesque designs.

The two book covers feature clasps to close the book and a ring by which such small books were usually attached to a woman’s girdle (see the examples in the case nearby). Both books bear the initials ‘T’, ‘W’ and ‘I’, which probably stand for those of Sir Thomas Wyatt the Younger and his wife Jane Haute, who were married in 1537.

The inscription refers to the London goldsmith Hans of Antwerp, named in Holbein’s will of 1543. On top of the lid is a female figure representing Truth, shown from three different angles to ensure that the goldsmith could replicate it in three dimensions.

Holbein drew only the left hand side of the drawing, folding it vertically to create a mirror-image on the right-hand side by offsetting, transferring the outlines by pressure.

The cup was presumably made to be presented by Hans of Antwerp himself, possibly in connection with his application for the freedom of the Goldsmiths’ Company in 1537.

This very finished drawing makes extensive use of wash to give a three-dimensional appearance, mimicking the gleam of metal on the bowl of the cup and representing the shadow underneath the ball feet.

The drawing has the appearance of a presentation drawing rather than one a goldsmith could work from: it is difficult to know whether the form of the cup is round or oval, and without further feet it would be unstable.

The dolphins are taken from a print by the Italian Zoan Andrea and were a fashionable motif for metalwork: compare the decoration of the instrument case shown nearby.

Only the upper part of this large piece is shown in this drawing with its carefully hatched indications of light and shade. The badge of Anne Boleyn, the crowned white falcon with Tudor roses growing from a tree stump, is visible between the satyrs who support the top. At the base standing women squeeze their breasts to let water flow.

The drawing closely resembles the description of a table fountain decorated with rubies and pearls given to Henry VIII by Anne Boleyn at New Year 1534.

This vigorous working drawing for an elaborate table fountain includes female figures with water issuing from their breasts. At the top is the figure of Jupiter with an eagle, hurling a thunderbolt, while just below people dance around an altar. Winged caryatids support the base.

Traces of chalk lines show Holbein first establishing the proportions, while beside the main sketch he reworked and clarified details of parts, such as the altar with a fire in the top left.

This is the preliminary design for a magnificent gold cup evidently intended to be given by Henry VIII to Queen Jane Seymour; they married on 30 May 1536. The Queen’s motto, ‘bound to obey and serve’, is repeated on the lid and on the foot, while the King and Queen’s initials are intertwined with love knots.

Holbein began by drawing the left hand side of the design, and also made a number of alterations. The right hand side is more hastily executed, and might be the work of an assistant, who had difficulty with the proper spacing of the initials H and I.

This drawing shows the final design for Queen Jane Seymour’s cup. The alterations seen in the initial design are reflected in this more elaborate drawing, where the arabesques are strengthened in vigour and the projecting antique busts are more detailed. However, not all the details of the initial design are well understood, suggesting the involvement of an artist other than Holbein.

A ‘faier standing cuppe of gold garnished with diamounts and pearls’ with the motto, ‘H and J knytt togethers’ and a cover matching the details of this design is described in the inventory of Henry VIII.

Holbein has shaped the pommels and guards of these highly-finished designs from a variety of motifs in his repertoire, fitting grotesque heads, musicians, acanthus leaves, scaly tentacles and rams’ horns with flowing ease into the required forms of the dagger hilts.

The designs are similar to the ceremonial dagger worn by Henry VIII in the cartoon for the Whitehall wall painting (Room 5) and suggest the design of such weaponry was among Holbein’s tasks as court artist.

The drawing for a baselard, a ceremonial dagger worn suspended from a girdle, is exceptionally rich in its ornamentation with jewels and figures. It is the only record of a design for a complete weapon by Holbein including both hilt and blade.

In this drawing Holbein sketches the principal ideas for the hilt of the dagger, incorporating arching male figures left and right with serpent tails which stretch and twist around the projecting sides of the hilt.

This design for the hilt of a sword incorporates similar motifs to those of the design for the dagger and develops the ideas of a curling tail and a cornucopia more strongly. The stages of Holbein’s work are clearly visible, from the initial chalk outlines to the details worked over in pen.

This design is not an original drawing but an offset, a record of an original created by pressure. It records lost alternative designs for the hilt of the dagger. It may itself have been produced by assembling several different drawings onto a single sheet.

This drawing provides the only evidence that Holbein made architectural designs in England. It shows an elaborate fireplace with roundels, including figures of Charity as a mother with children on the left, blind Justice on the right and a battle scene between them. Below is a roundel with Esther before Ahasuerus, surrounded again by a battle scene.

The royal coat of arms indicates that the design was made for Henry VIII but it is not known for which of his palaces it was intended, or whether it was ever constructed.