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Unfinished design for a chimneypiece in antique style showing a Corinthian column and pilaster as jambs with a lintel of figures in relief with guttae below.
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Reference number
Adam vol.26/183
Purpose
Unfinished design for a chimneypiece in antique style showing a Corinthian column and pilaster as jambs with a lintel of figures in relief with guttae below.
Aspect
Part-elevation, plan
Scale
Scale 1 1/2 inches to 1 foot
Inscribed
Inscribed in ink in a contemporary hand From Mr: Buiers at R [right-hand edge of paper cut raggedly]
Signed and dated
- Undated
Medium and dimensions
Pen, pencil
320 x 272
Hand
Unidentified eighteeenth century artist after James Byres
Notes
This is one of two sheets of chimneypiece designs by James Byres (1734-1817) (see Adam vol.26/184), which, like the ceiling designs in Adam vol.26/166, 167, 170, 174 and 176 are probably copies of drawings sent to London, presumably in the 1760s. The inscription is in the same hand as the other Byres' copies in this volume. None of the compositions seems remarkable compared with the Adam designs of that period and are tame when contrasted with those in G. B. Piranesi's Diverse Maniers d'adornare i cammini (Rome, 1769). There are chimneypieces by Byres at Badminton in Gloucestershire, England, and Fyvie Castle in Aberdeenshire, Scotland, all dated 1773 (see H. Colvin, A Biographical Dictionary of British Architects, 1600-1840, 3rd edn. London, 1995, p.205).
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).
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).
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