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[10] Preliminary design for the principal elevation of a building, c.1791-94, executed
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Reference number
SM Adam volume 1/66
Purpose
[10] Preliminary design for the principal elevation of a building, c.1791-94, executed
Aspect
Principal elevation of a two-storey, five-bay building with a rusticated ground floor and a raised parapet at roof level with bottle-neck balustrading. The central three-bays project forward and contain a ground-floor arcade and a first-floor Venetian window flanked by smaller windows set between paired Ionic columns supporting an entablature and pedestals decorated with festoons, surmounted by an enclosed bell motif flanked by reclining figures. The outer first-floor bays have tripartite windows in relieving arches next to paired Ionic pilasters at the ends of the building supporting pedestals surmounted by sphinx. There is a continuous frieze above the first floor containing the following inscriptions ‘TONTINE’, ‘ASSEMBLY’ and ‘TAVERN’
Scale
to a scale
Signed and dated
- c.1791-94
datable to c.1791-94
Medium and dimensions
Pencil on laid paper (311x232)
Hand
Probably
Robert or James Adam
Robert or James Adam
Watermark
GR surmounted by a fleur de lis within a crowned cartouche
Notes
The sphinxes and proposed inscriptions ‘TONTINE’, ‘ASSEMBLY’ and ‘TAVERN’ were omitted from the published design in Richardson’s New Vitruvius Britannicus and the executed building.
Literature
Bolton, 1922, p. 14
Richardson, 1802, Pl. 9
For a full list of literature references see scheme notes.
Richardson, 1802, Pl. 9
For a full list of literature references see scheme notes.
Level
Drawing
If you have any further information about this object, please contact us: drawings@soane.org.uk