(20) bar scale of 2/11 in to 1 ft (21) bar scale of 2/9 in to 1ft

(20) as above, Closet (twice), Bed, dimensions given and (verso, Baldwin) M^r Dillingham / Plan of Bed Chamber floor (21) as above, (against cornice, pencil, Soane) See Desgodetz (Antoine Desgodetz, 1653-1728, architect and author, Soane had French and English editions of 'Les èdifices antiques de Rome...') (followed by list of instructions in Soane's hand) The first Elevation / with the dome / This Elevation / Bed Ch:[amber] / Attics Plan / (pencil) Basement Story / The 3 designs for Sir / Thos. Beauchamp (Beauchamp-Proctor of Langley Park) / M^r Yorke Lodges (Hammels Park, Hertfordshire q.v.) / both front / & plan / Adm^l Rowley, (Joshua Rowley, Tendring Hall) 3 Elevations / M^r Gooch's Plans / & Elevations (Revd John Gooch, Saxlingham Rectory), some dimensions given and (verso, Baldwin) M^r Dillingham / Enterance (sic) Front

• (21) Jan^y: 1785

(20) Pen and sepia washes, brown pen, pencil, hatching, some erasures, partly pricked for transfer on laid paper with three fold marks (586 x 462) (21) pen and sepia washes, pencil, brown pen, shaded, erasures, within quadruple-ruled and wash border on laid paper with three fold marks (446 x 562)

(20-21) Soane, John Sanders (pupil 1784-90) see Notes below

(20) I Taylor, fleur-de-lis within crowned cartouche with GR below (21) J Whatman, and fleur-de-lis within crowned cartouche and below, ornate W

Drawing 20, and also drawings 8, 9 and 15, are the only surviving drawings for Letton Hall to show the bed chamber and/or attic floors. They do not correspond with the published 'Plan of the Attic Story' and 'Plan of the Chamber Story' (plate 9, Plans, elevations and sections of buildings executed in the counties of Norfolk, Suffolk .... 1788 (i.e.1789) though drawing 20 is close (bed chamber plan) but with later sketched-in embellishments including a corridor with a decorative ceiling.
Drawing 21 for the front or west elevation is close, except for the treatment of the cornice and corners and the decorative details, to the elevation published (plate 7) in Soane's Plans, elevations and sections of buildings erected in the counties of Norfolk, Suffolk ...1788 (i.e.1789).
The drawings illustrate rather well how Soane set his first pupil to work. Having begun in the office on 1 September 1784, by January of the following year, the young John Sanders was presumably told to copy Soane's plan of the bedroom floor. Carefully pricking though the plan of the staircase, Sanders produced his copy with the room dimensions labelled. Soane then experimented with alcoves to the front room, a corridor and, using an eraser, fitted in more closets, adding some further dimensions. Copying the entrance elevation proved more difficult for Sanders and the eraser has almost penetrated the paper. Soane's sketch details for the cornice and the instruction to 'See Desgodetz' (Antoine Desgodetz, Les Edifices antiques, 1779 etc) along with a list of drawings probably to be copied by Sanders, and a list of expenses make it clear that Sanders had to begin again on a fresh drawing of the Letton Hall front.

P.du Prey, John Soane: the making of an architect, 1982, pp.286-7 (discussion of drawing 21)

Drawing

Digitisation of the Drawings Collection has been made possible through the generosity of the Leon Levy Foundation

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