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Inscribed
Signed and dated
- (32) datable to November 1816 (33) November 13th. 1816 (34) Lincolns Inn Fields / 18th Decr1816
Hand
Notes
The rafter shown on both drawings is joined to the queen post by an iron abutment, labelled on drawing 32 as 'made of Vat Hoop', which was probably a trade name for iron straps (iron-hoop straps were used to secure wooden barrels or vats). The inscription on drawing 32 also indicates that a space was left between the beam and the queen post so that it could be screwed up at a later date. This was presumably to allow for any shift in the foundations or similar that might render the wooden structure loose.
The inscription on drawing 32 refers to 'coupling', which the Dictionary of Architecture (op.cit.) defines a 'couple' or a 'couple close' as 'A term used in the north of England for a pair of rafters framed together with a tie fixed at their feet, or with a collar-beam'.
Drawing 34 shows the structure of the whole raised floor. The queen post (each with two bolts marked) are shown in pairs framing the three central horizontal beams.
Literature
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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.
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).