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  • image SM Adam volume 28/25
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Reference number

SM Adam volume 28/25

Purpose

[28] Alternative design for the Haymarket (east) front of the opera house, c1789, unexecuted

Aspect

Elevation of a seventeen-bay, two-and-a-half-storey building as SM Adam volume 1/62

Scale

bar scale of 1 inch to 10 feet

Inscribed

Another Design for the Opera House (in the hand of William Adam) / faint pencil inscription right centre and some dimensions given

Signed and dated

  • c1789
    c1789

Medium and dimensions

Pen, pencil and wash on laid paper (580 x 459)

Hand

Possibly
Office hand, possibly Robert Morison or Daniel Robertson, with title inscription in the hand of William Adam

Verso

5 (brown ink) / opera house / 6 / These go in with the ____ (modern curatorial hand)

Watermark

PVL

Notes

Bolton suggests that this design may be incorrectly inscribed, and alternatively may form part of a scheme for Parliament House, Edinburgh. There are similarities in the designs, but the use of the Royal Coat of Arms and musical motifs suggest that it does in fact form part of the opera house scheme. This is further indicated by the seventeen-bay formation used, as Iain Gordon Brown highlights, the design for Parliament House is for a thirteen-bay building, and surmounted by the City of Edinburgh Coat of Arms.

This elevation varies from the plan designs SM Adam volumes 28/23-24.

Literature

Bolton, 1922, Volume II, Index p. 40
Sheppard, 1960, Volume XXIX, (i), p. 249
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