Engraving of the decorations for the recovery of George III, 24 April 1789

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Sir John Soane office drawings: the drawings of Sir John Soane and the office of Sir John Soane
- Bank of England
  - Bank of England, City of London for the Governor and Company of the Bank of England, 1788-1834 (1352)
    - 1788-1793 Initial assessment of existing buildings and minor alterations (73)
      - Illuminations for the occasion of George III's recovery from illness, 1789, and jubilee, 1809 (7)

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Reference number

SM (6) 10/1/2

Purpose

Engraving of the decorations for the recovery of George III, 24 April 1789

Aspect

6 South elevation of the Bank of England

Scale

bar scale

Inscribed

To Mark Weyland, Esq^rGovernor Sam^l Bosanquet, Esq^r Deputy Governor and the other Directors of the Bank of England / This plate of the principal front of the Bank shewing the disposition of the Lamps and Transparent Paintings on the 24 April 1789 / in consequence of his Majesty's recovery and public visit to S^tPauls Cathedral designed by and executed under the directions / of J. Soane Esq^rArchitect to the Bank -- (illegible) by permission most humbly dedicated by their / most obedient and devoted Serv^t / W^mHamilton & PW Tomkins, Published May 12^th 1796 by JF Tomkins N^o 18 New Bond Street

Signed and dated

24 April 1789

Hand

William Hamilton (1751-1801), engraved by Petro William Tomkins (1760-1840)

Notes

The Threadneedle Street front of the Bank is adorned with a festoon of garlands, medallions and stars, as well as thousands of coloured lights strung together along the roof line and between the windows. 'God Save the King' is lettered in yellow lights over the front entrance. Ornamental urns above the attic contain flaming torches. An illuminated allegorical painting by William Hamilton R.A. hangs in the centre, showing Britannia seated in a triumphal chariot guided by the City of London with her attendents, Commerce and Liberty (see drawing 1). The scheme was designed and executed under Soane's direction.

Literature

M. Richardson & M. Stevens (eds), John Soane architect: master of space and light, Royal Academy of Arts, 1999, p. 222, cat. 117; E. Benezit, Dictionnaire critique et documentaire des peintres, sculptuers, dessinateurs et graveurs, Librairie Gründ, 1976

Level

Drawing

Exhibition history

John Soane Architect: Master of Space and Light, Royal Academy of Arts, London, 11 September - 3 December 1999; Centro Palladio, Vicenza, April - August 2000; Hôtel de Rohan, Paris, January - April 2001; Canadian Centre for Architecture, Montreal, 16 May - 3 September 2001; Real Academia des Bellas Artes, Madrid, October - December 2001

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

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

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).