Scale
drawn to half the full Size
Inscribed
as above and with inscriptions as on SM 79/1/6 3 verso
Signed and dated
Medium and dimensions
Pen and sepia wash on laid paper (244 x 364/ 364 x 244) bound into 'Precedents in Architecture' volume 41
Hand
John Sanders (pupil 1784-90)
Watermark
T French
Notes
This drawing, SM volume 41/33 verso, SM volume 41/34 recto and SM volume 41/34 verso are close copies made to a reduced scale and bound in a vellum-covered volume entitled on the cover 'PRECEDENTS / In Architecture / 1784' compiled as a record book in the early years of practice, 1783-8 by Soane's articled pupils as well as Soane himself. The first pupil was John Sanders, articled 1 September 1784 to 1790. In the same volume, Sanders copied out 'A Description of the manner of building a Stone Bridge of one Arch / over the River Wenson at Black Fryers in the City of Norwich.' (pp.8 verso - 11 recto) and a contract headed 'Memorandum this [blank] day of [blank] 1783, I John Decarle / of the City of Norwich Stone Mason. Do hereby agree & promise / to &with the Mayor Sherifts (sic) Citizen[s] and Commonalty of the City of Norwich' (pp.11 recto - 12 recto) in which he agrees to build the bridge for £1250 'but at any Rate not to exceed Twelve hundred & ninety Pounds' with (subject 'to the Judgement of Mr Soane') an increase of between £20 and £40 pounds on that sum. Soane received £63 (5%) for fee and expenses which suggests that the final sum was £1260 or an increase of £10 only.
Jill Lever, December 2008
Level
Drawing
Digitisation of the Drawings Collection has been made possible through the generosity of the Leon Levy Foundation
Sir John Soane's collection includes some 30,000 architectural,
design and topographical drawings which is a very important resource for
scholars worldwide. His was the first architect’s collection to attempt to
preserve the best in design for the architectural profession in the future, and
it did so by assembling as exemplars surviving drawings by great Renaissance
masters and by the leading architects in Britain in the 17th and 18th centuries
and his near contemporaries such as Sir William Chambers, Robert Adam and
George Dance the Younger. These drawings sit side by side with 9,000 drawings
in Soane’s own hand or those of the pupils in his office, covering his early
work as a student, his time in Italy and the drawings produced in the course of
his architectural practice from 1780 until the 1830s.
Browse (via the vertical menu to the left) and search results for Drawings include a mixture of
Concise catalogue records – drawn from an outline list of the collection – and
fuller records where drawings have been catalogued in more detail (an ongoing
process).
