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Preliminary designs and working drawings for the Breakfast Room, 14 February - 18 October 1801 (5)

Notes

Drawing 190 is probably a very early record drawing of Soane's concept for this room, as indicated by the inclusion of bookshelves. A comparison with a watercolour of the Breakfast Room in the British Library collection (BL119) indicates that this room was first intended as the Library and that Soane altered its use later in the design process. Bianca de Divitiis draws attention to a note in Soane's hand at the bottom of the latter drawing; 'Sketch of the Library since alt. to Breakfast Room'.

Soane's preliminary drawings for the Breakfast Room at Pitzhanger introduce many familiar concepts to the design. The plans of 192-194 show the design for the ceiling - a shallow dome sitting on almost flat spandrels. An urn is sketched in drawing 194 - probably a reference to the Cawdor vase which Soane had bought early in 1800 and was eventually positioned in the Breakfast Room. Indeed, the decorative scheme of the Breakfast Room was partly designed around this important object.

Literature

B. De Divitiis, 'New Drawings for the interiors of the Breakfast Room and Library at Pitzhanger Manor', Architectural History Vol 48, 2005, p.164

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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.

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Contents of Preliminary designs and working drawings for the Breakfast Room, 14 February - 18 October 1801 (5)