Scale 1 1/2 inches to 1 foot

• Undated

Pen 460 x 270; torn in parts particularly on right-hand edge, top left corner

Unidentified eighteenth-century hand, after James Byres

This is one of two sheets of chimneypiece designs by James Byres (1734-1817) (see Adam vol.26/183), 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. This sheet is torn at the bottom right where an inscription similar to that in Adam vol.26/183 may have been; the draughtsmanship in the two drawings is identical and the Corinthian capital and lintel silhouette, shown as a detail, is that of the chiimneypiece jamb in 26/183. 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).

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