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Scotland: Edinburgh, Edinburgh Assembly and Musical Society (designs for concert hall). Design showing a section through a large hall with coffered and coved ceiling supported by pilasters flanking a large columned niche of three bays. On either side are lower sections of niches, panels and sculpture.
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Reference number
Adam vol.1/1
Purpose
Scotland: Edinburgh, Edinburgh Assembly and Musical Society (designs for concert hall). Design showing a section through a large hall with coffered and coved ceiling supported by pilasters flanking a large columned niche of three bays. On either side are lower sections of niches, panels and sculpture.
Aspect
Section
Signed and dated
- Undated, probably 1754/55
Medium and dimensions
Pencil, pen, grey wash182 x 330
Hand
Adam Scottish Office
Watermark
coat of arms, St. Esprit
Notes
In the opinion of A. A. Tait, this drawing relates in time and place or subject to those contained in Adam volume 7.This is probably a scheme for the Great Room in Edinburgh that occupied the Adam brothers around 1754/5; it was a hall for the Edinburgh Assembly and Musical Society (see J. Fleming, Robert Adam and His Circle in Edinburgh & Rome, London, 1962, pp.126 and 346). The interior section in Adam vol.1/4 is an alternative for the central section of this composition and the drawing in Adam vol.1/3 is probably a variation for one of the side niches. The schemes involved all the Adam brothers: Robert was involved in it with John before his departure for Italy, when James replaced him. Robert wrote from Italy in 1755 asking John to be told that 'I have been much on the observe with respect to concert rooms etc. But never have seen anything extraordinary in any shape as they perform mostly on the stages in play-houses . . . the few concert halls are quite plain without any coveing at all' (National Archives of Scotland, Edinburgh, Clerk of Penicuik Collection, GD18/4761). This interest may explain Adam's acquisition of a volume of theatre designs by Carlo Fontana (see A. Bolton, The Architecture of Robert and James Adam, 2 vols., London, 1922, II, p.330).
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