Of George Dance the Younger's three sons only the third, Lt.-Colonel Sir Charles Webb Dance outlived him. Eleven years after his father's death, Charles offered his drawings to Sir John Soane.

United Service Club March 31^st 1836

My dear Sir John

As you were so kind as to say you would / mention my House, & that you w^d look at it yourself / I send you the particulars with a Card to View.

I have examined all my dear Father's Drawings which / are very voluminous & in high preservation - the / Architectural Library is also a very excellent one. / Were I not very much reduced in my finances I w^d / have felt inclined to follow your noble example by / presenting this (I think I may say) very valuable / collection to be deposited in your National Gallery / but having four sons to educate & to bring up (besides / three daughters) having just paid for a Commission. / for the eldest - having at least £1,000 to pay for my / second son's education at College during the next 3 or 4 / years (he is to be confirmed today at the Chapel Royal / by the Bishop of London) & having two younger ones, / the youngest indeed only a baby of 6 months old - I / sh^d be neither doing my duty to myself or to them, if / I were to part with this, my dear Father's collection / without a very handsome consideration. It must / be a fancied value I know - like Pictures. But / it is in my eyes a considerable one - and if it / appears so to you, nothing can give me so much / pleasure as to hand them over to you to deposit in / your Museum, which w^d be alike honorable to the / memory of my excellent Father, & the good feeling of / that Pupil who never forgets to speak of his early / Master in terms of praise & gratitude. -

I have had several applications about my house. / Lady Douglas is going down to look at it today. / Two applications were made last week, & I hope / I shall get a Tenant very soon. - I shall go / down on Saturday morning myself & remain till / Tuesday next. If you like to come down on Monday / or Tuesday I will show you every thing - You / cannot see the Drawings if I am not there, as / I never leave them open. - If they do not / realize to me a sum of importance for the education / of my children, I shall seriously think of bringing / up one of my younger boys to his grandfather's / profession & and shall consider his drawings & Library / as the handsomest legacy I can leave him.

You will be glad to hear the King has most / graciously been pleased to appoint my eldest son / George to one of our finest Regiments, the 71^st /

I remain my dear Sir John
Y^rs very sincerely
C. W. Dance
(SM, Priv.Corr.III.D.5, letter No.31)

Charles Webb Dance's letter, with its happy talk of his sons and their education, must have given Soane a pang when he reflected on the sad history of his own two sons. With the letter are two copies of the 'particulars' of Hertsbourne Manor Place, Bushey Heath, Hertfordshire on which Charles Webb Dance had an unexpired lease of eight years.

An entry in Soane's accounts (Ledger E) shows that £500 was paid for Dance's drawings on 17 November 1836. Soane may have asked for a list of the drawings for on 26 December 1836 Thomas Poynder Junior - a great nephew of George Dance - wrote to say that neither he nor Charles Dance had made one.

52 Wimpole Street
Cavendish Square
26th Decr 1836

Dear Sir John

I observe by the memorandum / I made when I looked over the Drawings / at Hartsbourne with Sir Chas Dance, that / the Drawers contained
1^st Designs for additions at Stratton, in Hants / for a Church at Micheldever, / alterations proposed at Norman C^t / D^o at a House in Hill Street / Berkeley Square / all for the late Sir Francis Baring
2^nd Do for The College of Surgeons Lincolns Inn / for alterations at Lord Ashburnams [sic] / &c &c
3 D^o Various Designs
4 D^o Drawings of Tivoli, Museum Parma / Lord Camden / S^t Lukes Hospital / Newgate &c &C
I regret that neither Sir Charles nor / I made any list of the Drawings, /but I anxiously hope that you / will find "the Shrine" contains / all that ever were possessed by / him
Believe me,
With great regard
Dear Sir John,
Very truly yours
Thos: Poynder Jr

Sir John Soane
&c &c &c

Mem: Mr Dance died 1825
(SM, Priv.Corr.III.D.5, letter No.34)

The 'Shrine' referred to in Poynder's letter is the cabinet or plan chest in which Dance kept his drawings. At the time of Soane's death it stood in the Library-Dining Room but was removed to the Monk's Parlour in the following year and was there until 1916 when it went upstairs to the South Drawing Room. At some time between 1969 and 1971, the cabinet was moved a few paces into the North Drawing Room. The plan chest, measuring 720 by 1330 by 930 centimetres, with its five drawers or 'sliders' - Dance's term - is of varnished pine with two single-panelled cupboard doors hinged at the bottom. Simple and robust, it must have been made by a joiner to Dance's instructions. It has been assumed that it was Soane who designed the rather mannered base resting on a recessed plinth and 16 reeded feet but there is no documentation that confirms his authorship. Wider by 13 to 15 centimetres than the cabinet, the base has at each corner a carved pineapple on a pedestal and it is this black-painted base that gives the ensemble a solemn, even funereal appearance. Known as the 'Shrine' before Soane acquired it, it is more likely that Dance designed both elements. Certainly, the cabinet would always have needed some sort of base with pull-out brackets to support the bottom-hinged doors. Surmounting the cabinet is a shallow cupboard, 165 millimetres high and now empty but once housing several of Dance's smaller drawings, flanked by deep narrow boxes that may have contained drawing instruments; both have doors hinged at the bottom and are of mahogany. On top of this is a felt-covered platform. A white painted inscription on the top of the cabinet and again on the door reads This Cabinet enshrines a Collection of Architectural Designs and Drawings by the Late George Dance Esqr R.A. and another by his pupil the Founder of the Soane Museum.

'Hung on the west side of the cabinet are drawings of the Bank of England and of Soane's design of 1794 for the Houses of Parliament. On the south side is a general plan of the Bank dated 1831. Standing on the cabinet are models of antique Classical buildings made in Paris by Francois Fouquet, acquired by Soane in 1834' (Soane Museum, 2001, p.77). [Since writing, the North Drawing Room has been rearranged, for example, the Fouquet models are now located in Soane's reassembled Model Room on the second floor of the building.]

Soon after Charles Webb Dance's letter to Soane he wrote again on 6 April 1836: I have / your old friends the Views taken by my Father / of the Temple of Tivoli &c &c hanging up / in nice order in my Study (SM, Priv.Corr.III.D.5.32). Other drawings whose condition suggests that they were once framed and hung for some time include an unidentified design for a mausoleum exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1785. This may have been one of Dance's drawings hung in the Common Council Chamber at the Guildhall in or after 1792 until 1815 (Kalman p.119). Poynder's statement that Dance's drawings cabinet 'contains all that ever were possessed by him' could suggest that several drawings were removed from their frames and put in the 'Shrine' before it was taken to Lincoln's Inn Fields, though Walter Spiers's inventory of 1907 (D, p.94) states of 'a design for a Monument in a park' that 'the drawing was removed from a strainer'.

Soane died on 20 January 1837. Dance's library of architectural and other books was sold in June 1837 (manuscript catalogue of architectural books of the late George Dance Esq. R.A., SM, AL Soane Case 132; Watkin, 1972, pp.193-216) and thus too late for Soane to have bought any of them. George Bailey, from 1806 pupil, assistant and then chief clerk to Soane, became the first curator of the Soane Museum and his handwriting appears on some of the Dance drawings, folders and volumes. It seems that Dance, probably after his retirement in 1817, sorted his drawings and added the identifications that appear on the versos of many of them. He also occasionally added not executed, not adopted or as executed or first thoughts on, for example, drawings for Coleorton and Stratton. Some drawing sheets re-used as folders have Dance's writing on them. For instance, a folder inscribed Sketch of my design / for the Medal at Parma / 1763 re-uses a much later drawing for the Royal College of Surgeons ([SM D3/14/27]). Most of the re-cycled folders have Bailey's labels for example, Miscellaneous Drawings of Designs for / Country Houses (the names of the proprietors / not stated).

Bailey's manuscript 'Inventory of the various Works of Art, Natural Curiosities, Fittings and Fixtures &c in Sir John Soane's Museum, in January 1837' (amended 1839, Aa) has an entry for 'Miscellaneous Drawings, Sketches &c in Mr Dance's Collection contained in the "Shrine" in the Library [added in red pen] removed to Monk's Parlour Nov.1838' (ff.286-292 verso) which broadly lists the contents drawer by drawer, beginning with a dozen items housed in the 'Small Drawer or Slider top of Shrine'. Drawer 1 had contained drawings for Coleorton and Stratton and still did though those for Hill Street had been moved because (red pen) 'These drawings being inconveniently crowded according to this arrangement a new arrangement of the same was made ....' Thus, for example, the drawings for the Royal College of Surgeons that were in Drawer 2 with those for Ashburnham Place are presently in Drawer 5 and drawings for Newgate Gaol and St Luke's Hospital once in Drawer 5 are now in Drawer 4. Other inventories by successive curators including Joseph Bonomi (curator 1861-1878) and Walter Spiers (curator 1904-1917) show that drawings were moved within the cabinet and also removed from it and put with drawings from other sources. Curatorial 'tidiness' meant that, for example, some prints were filed with Soane's collection of prints; 'sundry Italian drawings' including some made and others collected by Dance were put with other Italian drawings and so on. It was during Spiers's curatorship that the majority of the drawings, including those by the Dances, were stamped with a circular stamp marked 'SOANE MUSEUM'.

According to A. T. Bolton (curator 1917-1945) in his Report to the Trustees (1923), 'It would appear that the first Curator, George Bailey, in dealing with the masses of loose sheets in the Office and other drawers [including Dance's], after first of all sewing them together, added a binding consisting of two battens of oak to each set, pierced and threaded through with string .... [Bolton] found that if large sheets of stout brown paper were used as top and bottom covers with a three inch binding strip of Book Binders cloth pasted over the back joints, the original perforations could be threaded through with Book Binders twine and a strong and durable binding be thus made, while dispensing entirely with the cumbersome battens.' Bolton's twine was removed so that the drawings could be microfilmed in the 1980s and the sheets numbered in their existing sequence; the last digit being added by Margaret Richardson. Bolton's folders with cloth hinges that still enclose the Dance drawings are to be replaced by acid-free folders when resources permit. [Since writing, this project has been completed.] The drawings will be arranged in a sequence reflecting that of the published catalogue and a concordance made between the old drawing and the new catalogue numbers. [Since writing, it was decided not to undertake this rearrangement, but Lever's concordance was produced within the hard copy of this catalogue.]

Apart from the 1342 drawings by Dance the Younger filed in the five sliders of his cabinet - of which 306 have further drawings on the versos, and a few are by other architects - there are also six volumes of drawings. Of these, two have marbled boards with a vertical blue, red and yellow pattern, green tape ties and orginal leather spines and paper labels. These contain drawings by Dance the Elder for Aldgate Church and Bethnal Green / Church and it is likely that he had them bound up (volumes 14 and 15, 510 by 375 millimetres and 535 by 374 millimetres).

The other four volumes share the same kind of blue and pink marbled boards and have been re-bound in brown calf. Two volumes have drawings for the Mansion House by the elder Dance and a few by his son (volumes 16 and 17, 535 by 395 millimetres and 745 by 555 millimetres, volume 17 now dis-bound); a third has a range of designs of which all except two are by the elder Dance (volume 18, 555 by 415 millimetres). The fourth volume has drawings of which all, except for six by the elder Dance, were made by his son early in his career (volume 19, 680 x 515 millimetres). Since the last drawings in the four volumes were made in 1765-6, they could all have been bound by the elder Dance before his death in 1768. Considering, however, the album of drawings by Nathaniel Dance put together by George Dance in 1818 and acquired by the British Museum in 1898, the mixed album of satirical drawings at the Royal Academy acquired in 1904, and the four albums of drawings by Dance and his brother Nathaniel sold at Christie's, 12 February 1912, it seems that assembling albums and volumes might well have been an occupation of the younger Dance's later years. The volume of Drawings at the Corporation of London Records Office (Dance portfolio) was bound up in the late 19th or early 20th century under the aegis of Sydney Perks, City Architect.

A seventh volume in the Soane Museum has, between blue and pink marbled boards, the contract specification for St Luke's Hospital, 1782. These seven volumes were originally kept in Dance's cabinet and were removed by George Bailey 'to the various bookcases' because of overcrowding (Ab, p.331).

The Dance accession of 1836 also includes three collections of prints. One of these belonged to the elder Dance and is catalogued with his drawings; it was mounted - possibly after his death in 1768 - in a very large album with blue and pink marbled boards. Two other groups of prints that belonged to the younger Dance are to do with the Port of London proposals, and with bridges and other subjects.

Included in this catalogue is Dance material from Soane's own collection, that is, design studies, caricatures and portraits by the younger Dance as well as three drawings of Dance buildings made for Soane's Royal Academy lectures, and eight survey drawings of Pitzhanger Manor made in 1800. There is also one model - for a roof truss - given to Soane by Dance in 1802. Early inventories have been checked to ensure that material displaced from the Dance cabinet has been included in this catalogue. Some minor items listed in the Bonomi inventory have not been found. There are '2 small drawings of Cupids / 1 small pencil sketch of a lioness intended as part of a Fountain / Pencil sketch of sundry terminal ornaments' and 'Tracing of the Design for the centre used in constructing / the Pont de Neuilly'. Altogether there are 75 drawings in this published catalogue that are not now housed in the Dance cabinet or in the Dance volumes but are either part of the accession of 1836 subsequently re-housed; in Dance's hand though from Soane's collection; related to a Dance scheme though from Soane's collection; two drawings by Dance purchased in 1994 and 1997.

LITERATURE. Sale catalogues of libraries of eminent persons, vol.4, ed. D. J. Watkiin, 1972; A New description of Sir John Soane's Museum, 2001.

Architect

If you have any further information about this object, please contact us: drawings@soane.org.uk