Explore Collections Explore The Collections
You are here: CollectionsOnline  /  Working drawings for the Privy Council Chamber, July 1826 (3)
  • image Image 1 for SM (234) 49/1/12 (235) 49/1/42A (236) 49/1/46
  • image Image 2 for SM (234) 49/1/12 (235) 49/1/42A (236) 49/1/46
  • image Image 3 for SM (234) 49/1/12 (235) 49/1/42A (236) 49/1/46
  • image Image 4 for SM (234) 49/1/12 (235) 49/1/42A (236) 49/1/46
  • image Image 1 for SM (234) 49/1/12 (235) 49/1/42A (236) 49/1/46
  • image Image 2 for SM (234) 49/1/12 (235) 49/1/42A (236) 49/1/46
  • image Image 3 for SM (234) 49/1/12 (235) 49/1/42A (236) 49/1/46
  • image Image 4 for SM (234) 49/1/12 (235) 49/1/42A (236) 49/1/46

Reference number

SM (234) 49/1/12 (235) 49/1/42A (236) 49/1/46

Purpose

Working drawings for the Privy Council Chamber, July 1826 (3)

Aspect

234 Sketch of the Plan of the New Council Chamber Downing Street 235 Elevation of a door surround; (verso) unfinished perspective of part of an unidentified building 236 Elevation Sketch of a Design for the South Side of the Council Chamber

Scale

(234) to a scale of 1/2 inch to 1 foot (235) bar scale of 2/3 inch to 1 foot (236) bar scale of 4/5 inch to 1 foot

Inscribed

234 as above, labelled: Finishings / 2'' projection / Pilasters 1½'', (pencil) 23'7½'' Finished Dimension, Brickwork, Line of Arch Line of Frames and dimensions given 235 New Council Offices, labelled: Council Chamber and some dimensions given 236 as above, New Council Offices and some dimensions given

Signed and dated

  • (234) July 1826 (235) L.I.F. / 20 July 1826 (236) L.I.F. 1826

Medium and dimensions

(234) Pencil, pink and yellow ochre washes, pricked for transfer on wove paper (712 x 525) (235) pencil, pricked for transfer on wove paper (389 x 289) (236) pencil, partly pricked for transfer on wove paper (644 x 794)

Hand

(234-236) Stephen Burchell (1806-?, pupil 1823-28)

Watermark

(234) Smith & Allnutt 1823 (236) J Whatman 1824

Notes

The outline of the 'starfish' ceiling is shown on drawing 234 and in the bottom right corner of the sheet are rough details of mouldings. The design for the door surround is the same on both drawings 235 and 236. On either side of the doorway are Ionic columns which support a scrolled acroterion - a typically Soanean device. On either side of the doorway are a panel and a roundel drawn for comparison (the finished design would have either two panels or two roundels). The caduceus (winged staff) motif in the panel signifies commerce and the horns of plenty celebrate prosperity and abundance. The roundel depicts Luna, the Roman personification of the moon. It is copied from the Arch of Constantine in Rome and was used frequently by Soane along with its pair, Sol.

Level

Drawing

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).