A drypoint etching of Cleopatra's Needle on the Thames Embankment in London, by the marine artist William Lionel Wyllie (1851-1931). The Houses of Parliament are visible to the right of the obelisk, while several horse-drawn carriages proceed along the Embankment.

The obelisk was made in Egypt for the Pharaoh Tuthmosis III around 1450 BC. It was presented to the United Kingdom in 1819 by the then Viceroy of Egypt, Mehemet Ali, in commemoration of the victories of Lord Nelson at the Battle of the Nile (1798) and Sir Ralph Abercromby at the Battle of Alexandria (1801). Although the British government welcomed the gesture, it declined to fund the expense of transporting the obelisk and it was not until 1877, when Sir William James Erasmus Wilson offered to sponsor the transportation, that it was brought across to this country. The project nearly met with disaster when the vessel carrying the obelisk was lost in a storm while sailing across the Bay of Biscay – this is represented in an oil painting in the Museum’s Collection (BHC0641) - but it was recovered and the stone was eventually winched into position on the Embankment by John Dixon in 1878. See also PAE2075.