Inscribed in ink in a contemporary hand From Mr Buiers at Rome

• Undated but possibly from after Adam's return from Italy. The lower drawing below may be later

Black chalk, pen 500 x 332

Giuseppe Manocchi (attributed to), after James Byres. The lower drawing, Robert Adam, (attributed to)

This drawing belongs with several other designs as coming from James Byres (1734-1817). The inscription relating to James Byres appears in the same hand on other ceiling designs, Adam vol.26/166, 167, 174 and 176, and it would suggest that they were inscribed in London. All are unfinished and may well be copies, probably by Giuseppe Manocchi (1731-82), after the complete originals. James Byres turned from painting to architecture c.1758 while in Rome, and in 1762 he won a prize in the Concorso Clementino. At that time he was known to James Adam's circle (see J. Fleming, Robert Adam and His Circle in Edinburgh & Rome, London, 1962, p.378). There is an album of finished ceiling designs attributed to Byres in the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum, New York, USA (see J. Harris, Catalogue of British Drawings for Architecture, Decoration, Sculpture and Landscape Gardening 1550-1900 in American Collections, New Jersey, 1971, p.41).
The lower version of the panel in chalk simplifies both the borders and the vase compositions in the two quadrants, and this may well be a later drawing in the hand of Robert Adam. The juxtaposition makes quite clear the practical role such compositions had in the Adam office and, presumably, the need for office copies such as these.

Drawing

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