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Working and record drawings of decorative details for pilaster, mouldings of capital and cornice, and part of groin arch soffit, one dated 23 August 1799 (9)
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Reference number
SM (28) 11/1/18 (29) volume 74/88 (30) 11/1/22 (31) volume 74/87 (32) volume 74/90 (33) 11/1/21 (34) volume 42/192
Purpose
Working and record drawings of decorative details for pilaster, mouldings of capital and cornice, and part of groin arch soffit, one dated 23 August 1799 (9)
Aspect
28 (Bailey) Design for Capital of pilasters in Consols Transfer Office with panelled pilaster and incised capital with volutes, Greek key fret and anthemion and (verso, pencil and brown pen) rough details and plans of panelled pilasters with Greek key fret, beading and oak leaf moulding
29 Capital of Pilaster, a more finished version of drawing 28
30 Preliminary (Bailey) Design for the Cornice etc of Piers, with panelled pilasters and incised capital with volutes, Greek key fret and anthemion, dentilled cornice with lion masks, and part of groin arch soffit decorated with oak leaf moulding flanked by stepped square panels
31 Elevation and section of Pilaster in Consols Transfer Office and part of groin arch soffit, a more finished version of drawing 30 but with different panelling and rosettes rather than oak leaf moulding on soffit of groin arch
32 Cornice in Consols Transfer Office, a more finished version of drawing 30, with an acorn ornament at the end of the cornice
33 Detail for entablature of pier, with cornice, Greek key fret and paterae
34 Detail of panelled pilaster with incised capital with volute, fret and anthemion motifs and details of cornice
Scale
(28-29, 31-33) to scale (30, 34) bar scale
Inscribed
28 as above, (Bailey) The Bank of England and (verso) dimensions given
29 as above, The Bank of England / Consols Transfer Office
30 as above, The Bank of England, Consols Transfer Office, sink these / panls as deep / as possible, dimensions given
31-32 as above, The Bank of England
33 (Bailey) The Bank of England, (pencil, added later) Q[query] Consols Transfer Office
34 dimension of 2:0 (width of pilaster), calculations and (list of names) Mr G.Tho. / Mr Thornton / Sir J. Hippisley / Mr Spiller
Signed and dated
- (28) (Bailey) 1799 (29, 31-33) datable to 1799 (30) Aug 23 99
Hand
(29, 31-33) Soane office (28) Soane office and (verso) Soane (30) Soane office and additions by Soane (34) possibly
George Dance (1741-1825)
George Dance (1741-1825)
Notes
Drawing 33 is not dated and the inscription queries whether it belongs to the Consols Transfer Office, however it is included with drawings 28, 30, 34, 39, 41-42 and 45 (located together in drawer 11. Set 1. 17-24) as a set of decorative details for the Transfer Office.
In the executed building the piers had a full entablature with complete tri-fascia architrave and dentilled cornice.
The lion masks and acorn motifs conventionally connoted strength and stability. The lion masks were executed along the cornice and the acorn motif was realised in the oak leaf moulding of the trunk arches.
The incised capital with volutes, Greek key fret and anthemion was not executed, as indicated by the cancellation cross drawn over drawing 28, although the design does appear in the later presentation drawing 74. Instead a sunken panel with Greek key fret was realised on the capitals of the pilasters.
In the executed hall the soffit of the groin arches was decorated with panels incised with four lines intermittently broken by rosettes within sunken square panels.
These large-scale drawings of decorative details conveyed Soane's intentions to plasterers executing the designs. Soane would often sketch a design, as seen in the preliminary drawing 30, which a pupil would then re-draw as a finished design, as seen in drawings 31-32.
Drawing 34 appears to be in George Dance's hand, showing an elaboration of a design he had previously used at the library of Lansdowne House, London (c.1788-94). The names indicated are for craftsmen that both Dance and Soane employed: Mr Thomas was a plasterer who worked on two of Dance's jobs - Coleorton, April 1806 and at Stratton Park; Sir John Hippisley, Bt., (1747-1825); and Spiller may refer to Robert Spiller (fl. 1794-1827) mason and carver.
In the executed building the piers had a full entablature with complete tri-fascia architrave and dentilled cornice.
The lion masks and acorn motifs conventionally connoted strength and stability. The lion masks were executed along the cornice and the acorn motif was realised in the oak leaf moulding of the trunk arches.
The incised capital with volutes, Greek key fret and anthemion was not executed, as indicated by the cancellation cross drawn over drawing 28, although the design does appear in the later presentation drawing 74. Instead a sunken panel with Greek key fret was realised on the capitals of the pilasters.
In the executed hall the soffit of the groin arches was decorated with panels incised with four lines intermittently broken by rosettes within sunken square panels.
These large-scale drawings of decorative details conveyed Soane's intentions to plasterers executing the designs. Soane would often sketch a design, as seen in the preliminary drawing 30, which a pupil would then re-draw as a finished design, as seen in drawings 31-32.
Drawing 34 appears to be in George Dance's hand, showing an elaboration of a design he had previously used at the library of Lansdowne House, London (c.1788-94). The names indicated are for craftsmen that both Dance and Soane employed: Mr Thomas was a plasterer who worked on two of Dance's jobs - Coleorton, April 1806 and at Stratton Park; Sir John Hippisley, Bt., (1747-1825); and Spiller may refer to Robert Spiller (fl. 1794-1827) mason and carver.
Literature
(29, 32) M. Richardson & M. Stevens (ed.), John Soane architect: master of space and light, Royal Academy of Arts, 1999 (29) p. 240, ill. 148; (32) p. 240
Level
Drawing
Digitisation of the Drawings Collection has been made possible through the generosity of the Leon Levy Foundation
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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.
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