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  • image SM Adam volume 1/50

Reference number

SM Adam volume 1/50

Purpose

[3] Preliminary design for a house, 1786-90, partly executed

Aspect

Elevation of the principal (west) front of a house, with a two-storey, five-bay central block with a string course; and with the central three bays projecting, and including a central door flanked by slit windows behind a portico of paired Doric columns, and with a door and slit windows above giving access to a balcony formed by the balustraded roofline of the porch; and these three bays are surmounted by a frieze of circles and a tablet containing a shield and swags, surmounted by a pediment with three acroteria and an oculus in the tympanum; and the end bays of the central block have arched windows on the ground floor, half-height windows above, a fluted frieze, and are surmounted by sculpted sphinxes. The central block is flanked by single-storey, single-bay links, with projecting arched doors, and surmounted by urns on stepped pedestals; and beyond are one-and-a-half-storey, three-bay domed pavilions, with a single central window with a Doric architrave and pediment, and within a relieving arch on the ground storey, flanked by roundels, and with quarter-height windows in the upper register (verso) rough pencil-drawn elevation of design on recto

Scale

to a scale

Signed and dated

  • 1786-90
    datable to 1786-90

Medium and dimensions

Pencil on laid paper (517 x 234)

Hand

Robert Adam

Watermark

JWHATMAN

Literature

Rowan, 1985, p. 82
Rowan, 1988, p. 100
For a full list of literature references see scheme notes.

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