Scale
No scale bar, but 40 feet to 1 3/10 inches from dimension on plan.
Inscribed
In pencil, by William Talman, on plans of three rooms in centre of top of plan, 40, 55, 40; and on verso, in pencil, by John Talman, Duke of Newcastle, and on left-hand side, in C18-19 pen and brown ink, 3W47.
Signed and dated
Medium and dimensions
Pen and brown ink with grey wash, over pencil under-drawing, with amendments in pencil; thin laid paper, 117 x 222.
Hand
William Talman
Watermark
none
Notes
This plan is an initial proposal for the ground floor of the Duke of Newcastle's house, and is preparatory to the 'grand scheme' at 2 and 3 below (111/28, 22). There are no steps front and back on this plan, and the lower central flight of the imperial staircase has twice the number of steps as on the finished plan, suggesting that in this plan is at ground level. If so, it probably followed the arrangement of the sixteenth-century courtyard house on the site, whose plan is known from a survey drawing of 1618 by John Smythson at the RIBA (Smythson, III/4; see Girouard, Robert Smythson and the Elizabethan Country House, 1983, pl. 191). Talman has incorporated pairs of square closets separated by narrow chambers (probably garderobes) at each of the angles of the plan. The front wings have small service stairs on their inner sides.
Level
Drawing
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