Landmark Images

Every mug in this shop carries an image with a documented source. These are the ones chosen against a stricter test.

Each of them marks a first or a turning point — a moment when something was seen, recorded or depicted in a way it had not been before. The first appearance of Halley's Comet in Western art. The beginning of empirical nature study. The first book in history illustrated with photographs. The first photograph of powered flight. The first painting to abandon the visible world altogether.

Fame is not the criterion, and neither is decoration. A picture can be famous and change nothing. The test is whether an art historian could defend the choice in one sentence — and that sentence stands in the listing, where you can check it.

Three conditions, all of which must hold: the image marks a first or a break; its source is named, with institution, accession number and rights position; and it survives the translation to a 175-millimetre cylinder without losing what makes it matter.

Selected by Dr. Walther Fuchs for the Tazzarte collection.