The Layton Collection

THE THOMAS LAYTON TRUST & LAYTON'S COLLECTION

Pharmacopoeia Londinensis or, The new London dispensatory

Self-proclaimed professor of physick, Salmon provides the reader with a wealth of advice on cure-alls for diseases as diverse as small pox and gastric wind. Like many medical “professionals” of his era, Salmon freely mixes medicine, alchemy and divination as remedies to the many diseases of the time, such as in the use of unicorn horn for its potent ‘resistance to plague and pestilence’.

William Salmon, 1679. Layton Collection 10412

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The Collection

Thomas Layton collected books, coins, and archaeological items (usually described as ‘antiquities’) for 70 years. In that time he had accumulated what has been described as “probably the largest collection of London antiquities ever amassed by a single individual”.

The vast majority of items are believed to have been bought at auctions. Some came to him from his men working on the river. His businesses provided opportunities for finds from dredging, building of bridges and embankments along the banks of the Thames, for which Layton paid good money. Even by the standards of the day Layton kept poor records of where items were found. Despite this, the collection is considered highly important particularly to archaeologists and pre-historians.