Royal College of Surgeons, 41-42 (now 35-43) Lincoln's Inn Fields, Holborn, Camden, London, 1805-12 (with James Lewis)

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George Dance office drawings: the drawings of George Dance the Elder and George Dance the Younger
- Public buildings (3)
  - Royal College of Surgeons, 41-42 (now 35-43) Lincoln's Inn Fields, Holborn, Camden, London, 1805-12 (with James Lewis) (226). Survey drawings, preliminary designs, design and working drawings

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Reference number

SM D5/4/24

Purpose

Royal College of Surgeons, 41-42 (now 35-43) Lincoln's Inn Fields, Holborn, Camden, London, 1805-12 (with James Lewis)

Aspect

[109] Mouldings full size, for the Front Wall, Lincolns Inn Fields

Scale

Inscribed

as above, Royal College of Surgeons, N^o 1, lettered A-D, labelled Cornice, Part of Blocking, Parkers Cement (four times), The Letters refer to the Drawing of the Front N^o 1 and (verso, Dane) Royal College of Surgeons / Moldings of Front above the Portico

Signed and dated

1805-12

Medium and dimensions

Pen, raw umber, pink, green earth washes, pencil, partly pricked for transfer on laid paper (1020 x 660)

Hand

Dance

Watermark

D & C Blauw IV and D&CBxX in cartouche surmounted by fleur-de-lis

Notes

There is no 'Drawing of the Front N^o1' among Dance's drawings in the Soane Museum. Dance uses a pale green wash to distinguish the 'Parkers Cement' used to render the front elevation. A light brown wash distinguishes the stone mouldings, and pink the brickwork.

'Parker's cement, also called Roman and Sheppey cement, was discovered in 1796 by Mr James Parker, of Northfleet'. Made principally from a limestone found on the Isle of Sheppey and at Harwich, it was found in about 1810-15 that it could used during the winter months but by 1840 the source had run out and it was no longer used. 'The cement itself is a fine impalpable powder; yet when wetted it becomes coarse, and, unless mixed with great care it will not make a good surface. When mixed with the sand and water, it sets very rapidly; it is necessary therefore, to avoid mixing much at a time, or a portion will be lost. The colour of this cement, when finished, is an unpleasant dark brown.... The surface requires frequent colouring for appearance. It is impervious to water almost the moment it is used...' (J. Gwilt, Encyclopaedia of architecture, 1899).

Level

Drawing

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).