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London: Parliament House (designs for). Unfinished plan for an entrance portico of seven bays fronting a large doorway with a pilastered niche on either side and four columns in front, all reached by a double staircase in two flights.
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Reference number
Adam vol.7/78
Purpose
London: Parliament House (designs for). Unfinished plan for an entrance portico of seven bays fronting a large doorway with a pilastered niche on either side and four columns in front, all reached by a double staircase in two flights.
Aspect
Plan
verso details
Signed and dated
- Undated, probably 1762-63
Medium and dimensions
Pen, pencil
200 x 328
Hand
James Adam, Office of
Verso
Unfinished pencil sketch of a staircase and basement, part of the entrance elevation of the staircase on the recto. Both drawings are connected with James Adam's Parliament House scheme of 1762/3, possibly drawing by George Richardson (d. c.1813) for James Adam in Rome.
Watermark
Fleur de lys in double circle
Notes
This plan is the source for the part-elevation in Adam vol.7/77, and the guidelines are apparent. Like the drawing on the verso it is one of a number of designs for the entrance portico of James Adam's Parliament House scheme of 1762/3, possibly drawing by George Richardson (d. c.1813) for James Adam in Rome.
The portico shown most closely matches that found in Adam vol.1/28, which is possibly dated c.1768 and probably derived from James Adam's Parliament House drawings while in Rome in 1762/63 (see A. A. Tait, Robert Adam: drawings and imagination, Cambridge, 1993, pp.55-66). The plan was still 'improving' in 1763, no doubt encouraged by the arrival in 1762 of the Office of Works memorandum giving details of the existing buildings (see Adam vol.7/110). James Adam had written to his sister in London explaining, 'Now that my own plan is made out my curiosity to see the old is greater than ever' (Tait, op. cit., p.63). Nothing appears to survive to match this plan unless it is the two sketches of 1760 and references to the decoration of great and circular halls (see Adam vol.7/60).
The portico shown most closely matches that found in Adam vol.1/28, which is possibly dated c.1768 and probably derived from James Adam's Parliament House drawings while in Rome in 1762/63 (see A. A. Tait, Robert Adam: drawings and imagination, Cambridge, 1993, pp.55-66). The plan was still 'improving' in 1763, no doubt encouraged by the arrival in 1762 of the Office of Works memorandum giving details of the existing buildings (see Adam vol.7/110). James Adam had written to his sister in London explaining, 'Now that my own plan is made out my curiosity to see the old is greater than ever' (Tait, op. cit., p.63). Nothing appears to survive to match this plan unless it is the two sketches of 1760 and references to the decoration of great and circular halls (see Adam vol.7/60).
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