Scale
(27) 1/9 inch to one foot (28) to a scale (29) 1/8 inch to one foot (approximately)
Inscribed
27 as above, N0 1, plan labelled Hack Stable, Strangers Coachouse, Saddle Room (twice), Garden Wall (twice), Cleang Harness, Harness &c and dimensions given29 as above, old Step / to the indent, Ro.[und] Arch (five times), semi[circular] (twice), Recess, indent, Single Cornice & fascia between the Pavilions, Floor of Basement Story, Stone to the indent / 3 in deep, Floor of Stables 9 inches above the / floor of the Basement Story / of the House, Stone (?) ^house to the Circular Wall, Ro. Arch and some dimensions given, (verso, Baldwin) Tendring Hall / Stable Offices
Signed and dated
(27) Jan:ry 3d 1785 (29) datable to c. November 1785 (on comparison with drawing 23)
Medium and dimensions
(27) Pen, sepia and light yellow washes with double ruled and black wash border on laid paper with one fold mark (442 x 560) (28) pen, burnt umber, sepia, grey-blue and green washes, shaded on laid paper (320 x 460) (29) brown pen, pencil, hatching on cartridge paper with three fold marks (600 x 490)
Hand
(27-28) Robert Baldwin (fl. 1762-c.1804) (29) Soane
Watermark
(27) J Whatman, fleur-de-lis above cartouche with bar and below, ornate W (28) J Whatman
Notes
27 The drawing dated 3 January 1785 follows the first contract drawing for the stables of May 1784 (drawing 7 q.v.) that has a courtyard plan, 85 feet by 113 feet, which is basically a circle interrupted by three rectangular buildings. The later design (this drawing 27) has a circle interrupted by three rectangular buildings and two small square ones. The layout and dimensions of the three rectangular buildings are much the same but the addition of two square pavilions (15x15 feet) flanking a screen with a triple gate allows for a more imposing entrance and, in the same spirit, a domed clock tower had been added to the central building. 28 The perspective shows a design that is more enclosed so that the round arched, double-height entrance is through a three-storey centre supporting a pavilion-roofed clock tower (flanked at the corners by water pots). The plan is an adaptation of the previous drawing, that is, a square courtyard with rectangular sides and quadrant corners.29 The unfinished sketch design by Soane, datable to about November 1785 is a simpler and more economical design than either drawings 27 or 28. The courtyard is now a semicrcle with two single-storey buildings with pavilion ends, its design consonant with that of Soane's sketch scheme for the kitchen offices (drawing 23). Plate 21 of the design for a stable court at Tendring Hall published in Soane's Plans, elevations and sections of buildings erected in the counties of Norfolk and Suffolk, 1788 (1789) shows it much as it appears on drawing 27, that is, with a detached, rounded square plan. It is possible that the stables were carried out in a reduced form. Soane's account book (SM 'Journal No1', p.73) has an entry dated 29 February 1788 - 'Sent enclosed with some Nails from / Watkins drawing for Workmen / of Ground plan of Stables and / Elevations on a sheet of Cartridge / Paper'. On 10 January 1789, Soane 'Paid Nicholls on Acct of Slating to / the Stable --- 60' with a further sum of £40 on 18 February 1789. In October 1789 £94.0.0 was paid 'for Painting &c, to Stables'. In fact, the slating and painting may not have been for new work but the repairing of the old, existing stables.
Level
Drawing
Digitisation of the Drawings Collection has been made possible through the generosity of the Leon Levy Foundation
