Details of the of the Corinthian Order from the above.

This drawing is one of a series of the antiquities of Africa contained in two red morocco-bound albums. These were presented by James Bruce of Kinnaird to George III after he visited the King on his return to England in 1774. Bruce had apparently promised such a gift before he set out on his journeys to North Africa, Palmyra and Baalbek in the 1760s. Bruce retained a third volume of drawings as this was unfinished. George III is said to have hidden the drawings when Bruce's character was questioned (by commentators such as Samuel Johnson), and they were rediscovered by the Librarian, Frederick Augustus Barnard, who searched for them once Bruce's reputation was restored. It is unclear whether the drawings are by the Italian draughtsman Luigi Balugani, who travelled with Bruce until his death in 1770, or by Bruce himself. Bruce claimed authorship, and suggested that he had used a camera obscura to aid the compositions.