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Drawings [1] to [14] were, at some stage, folded in half and stitched together to make 14 leaves. When 'unstitiched' drawing [1] is composed of the first and last drawing in the group of 14. Since the stitched drawings were each given a number relating to plan chest, drawer and folder (for example 6/4/29) the drawings have been catalogued in that order. There are two blank leaves between drawings [11] and [12.]. Drawings 15 to 19 are single sheets.
Soane's sketch designs focus mostly on the ground floor of the south-west part of the house. This includes the library, anti room, eating room and the offices behind. Drawing [14] has details for the exterior but the main concern at this stage seems to be the plan and the addition and re-ordering of rooms. No survey drawings have survived (in Soane's collection) though they must have been made.
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).
Contents of Sketch designs made by Soane, 2-4 November 1799 (19)
- [2] Design for wall
- [3] Design for eating room
- [4] Design for south-west part of house
- [5] Design for south-west part of house
- [6] Design for another part of house
- [7] Design for part of chamber floor
- [8] Slight (pencil) design for elevation
- [9]+[8verso] Designs for ground floor
- [10] blank sheet (verso) slight pencil plan with four adjacent rooms
- [11] blank sheet (verso) Alternative designs for ground floor plans for offices
- [12] blank sheet (verso) design for section
- [13] Design for column and (verso) details of elevation
- [14] Design for part elevation and (verso) details
- [15] Design for eating room
- [16] Design for part of chamber floor
- [17] Design for ground floor (verso) room plan and elevation, decorative details
- [18] Design for ground floor
- [19] Design for part of first floor