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Plan showing a pentagonal building with round towers at the corners, two having spiral staircases. It is divided into three apartments, one with a circular screen of columns, and two indicated as bed chambers. To one side is a detail of a moulding profile.
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Reference number
Adam vol.7/125
Purpose
Plan showing a pentagonal building with round towers at the corners, two having spiral staircases. It is divided into three apartments, one with a circular screen of columns, and two indicated as bed chambers. To one side is a detail of a moulding profile.
Aspect
Plan, detail
Scale
inscribed Scale 30 ft to an Inch
Inscribed
Inscribed in ink in James Adam's hand (top left) Moulding round a pannal in the palace of King / James 5th. Edin.r castle, that has a fine effect & wou'd do/ well for an Architrave to a window / the bead is enrich'd with pater nosters / & ovolo with Egg & dart/ the other swelling mould'g with a / leaf; (top right) notes and dimensions of room heights, and the words cellar half sunk above/ the ground; (bottom of sheet) Scale 30 ft to an Inch
Signed and dated
- Undated, possibly c.1754
Medium and dimensions
Pencil, pen
192 x 304
Hand
James Adam
Watermark
Royal arms
Notes
The plan and inscription are in James Adam's hand and belong to the period prior to his Italian tour in 1760, possibly around 1754. The varying thickness of the walls and the irregular pattern of fenestration suggest this was an existing building, possibly of the sixteenth century, which Adam was sympathetically modernising. It is worth comparing this historical scheme with Robert Adam's proposal of 1774 for re-working the tower-house at Barnbougle, near Edinburgh.
The note on Edinburgh Castle perhaps refers to the moulded sill-course of the Great Hall of the castle, part of the James V work of c.1540. The Board of Ordnance, to which the Adam family were Master Masons, made a survey of the building in 1754 and this may explain James Adam's connection and knowledge (see Royal Commission on Ancient Monuments: The City of Edinburgh, pp.11-24; and J. Gifford, C. McWilliam and D. Walker, The Buildings of Scotland, Edinburgh, Harmondsworth, 1984, p.95).
The note on Edinburgh Castle perhaps refers to the moulded sill-course of the Great Hall of the castle, part of the James V work of c.1540. The Board of Ordnance, to which the Adam family were Master Masons, made a survey of the building in 1754 and this may explain James Adam's connection and knowledge (see Royal Commission on Ancient Monuments: The City of Edinburgh, pp.11-24; and J. Gifford, C. McWilliam and D. Walker, The Buildings of Scotland, Edinburgh, Harmondsworth, 1984, p.95).
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