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Variant design for a six-part villa in a Classical style 78 by 81 feet based on a design by an unidentified architect, c.1811-12
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Reference number
SM D2/8/43
Purpose
Variant design for a six-part villa in a Classical style 78 by 81 feet based on a design by an unidentified architect, c.1811-12
Aspect
[1] Ground floor plan of house and offices with very faint rough perspective
Scale
1/5 in to 1 ft
Inscribed
rooms labelled including Hall, Library, Drawing room, Breakfast / or / Billiard room, Eating room and dimensions given
Signed and dated
- c.1811-12
Medium and dimensions
Pen, pink and black washes, pencil, pricked for transfer on laid paper, two sheets joined (665 x 1230)
Hand
Dance
Watermark
D & C Blauw and (twice) D&CBxX in cartouche surmounted by fleur-de-lis
Notes
The house has a six-part villa plan that is 77..9 wide by 81..9 deep, the offices with a small link wing approximately 132 feet wide by 47 feet deep and placed on one side (to the right). The almost square house plan has a central canted bay, re-drawn as a bow, black wash indicating revisions. The blind windows that appear in later drawings are not shown here, and except for a faint pencil indication, no porte-cochere is drawn in.
Kalman (p.179) comments 'the three most important ground-floor rooms [are] 24 feet by 36 feet (also 2:3, and the same sizes used at Norman Court) [designed 1810] .... This project, for which at least twelve drawings survive, may perhaps be the country house for which Dance "stole" ideas from Soane's Tyringham in 1802. The size, shape, and disposition of the plans of the two houses are similar, and Dance's central feature is a square, galleried, top-lighted space quite similar to the tribune at Tyringham.' The mutual exchange of ideas between the two men is well illustrated in a letter dated 2 August 1801 (SM Priv.Corr.III.D.5.14) in which Dance asks Soane to show him the plan for Tyringham since 'I want to steal from it'.
Four drawings by an unidentified architect for an unidentified six-part villa in a Classical style ([SM D2/8/30], [SM D2/8/29], [SM D2/8/27] and [SM D2/8/28]) relate to this set of 13 drawings. The handed plan, drawn by Dance, on the verso of the first of that set corresponds, more or less, to drawing [SM D2/8/43] catalogued here. The disposition of rooms, for example, is the same though each is larger by several feet. It is as if Dance has taken someone else's design, switched the office wing from the left hand side to the right and improved the proportions and circulation.
Kalman (p.179) comments 'the three most important ground-floor rooms [are] 24 feet by 36 feet (also 2:3, and the same sizes used at Norman Court) [designed 1810] .... This project, for which at least twelve drawings survive, may perhaps be the country house for which Dance "stole" ideas from Soane's Tyringham in 1802. The size, shape, and disposition of the plans of the two houses are similar, and Dance's central feature is a square, galleried, top-lighted space quite similar to the tribune at Tyringham.' The mutual exchange of ideas between the two men is well illustrated in a letter dated 2 August 1801 (SM Priv.Corr.III.D.5.14) in which Dance asks Soane to show him the plan for Tyringham since 'I want to steal from it'.
Four drawings by an unidentified architect for an unidentified six-part villa in a Classical style ([SM D2/8/30], [SM D2/8/29], [SM D2/8/27] and [SM D2/8/28]) relate to this set of 13 drawings. The handed plan, drawn by Dance, on the verso of the first of that set corresponds, more or less, to drawing [SM D2/8/43] catalogued here. The disposition of rooms, for example, is the same though each is larger by several feet. It is as if Dance has taken someone else's design, switched the office wing from the left hand side to the right and improved the proportions and circulation.
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