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  • image SM volume 109/40
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Reference number

SM volume 109/40

Purpose

[12/13] Working or construction design for the main floor and upper windows, and for the balustrading on the north side of the Chapel

Aspect

North elevation, with larger scaled plans of window jambs

Scale

1 foot to just under 3/8 inch for elevation; separate scale of 1 foot to just under 1 inch for large-scale plans

Inscribed

In pen and brown ink by James, to right of main floor window, North front of Chapel; and with dimensions of the windows and dressings, a calculation near bottom right hand corner (24 . 10 ¼ / 18 / 6 10¼), numbering on scale bar; and in C19 hand at top and bottom right, 40

Signed and dated

  • Undated, but datable 1735

Medium and dimensions

Pen and grey ink over graphite under-drawing, with additions in graphite, and with inscriptions in brown ink; large blot of brown ink near bottom right-hand corner; on laid paper, laid down; 463 x 295

Hand

badly-nested tags: br

Verso

Inscribed on verso with three groups of calculations in pen and brown ink

Watermark

Countermark: IV

Notes

The drawing was probably prepared at about the time that construction began in July 1735 and is contemporary with James's drawing for the south elevation, [12/12]. The pen detailing conforms with the executed work, but the purpose of the inner openings within the pen-drawn frames of the windows is unclear. James has drawn in graphite a continuous impost course across the principal window and adjoining wall surfaces like the impost course on [12/12], but this moulding course was not executed on the north elevation, where the walls were detailed to match those of north elevation of the hall. The balustrading is a copy of the balustrading on both sides of the hall range. Hawksmoor's north elevation design, [6/2], has a blank parapet instead of a balustrade. On the Hall balustrading was provided on both sides. On the Chapel, however, only the north parapet was balustraded, probably for reasons of economy. Its south side, facing the court, was finished with a simple blocking course, as shown on [12/12].

Literature

Wren Society, VI, pl. 50 (bottom)

Level

Drawing

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Sir John Soane's collection includes some 30,000 architectural, design and topographical drawings which is a very important resource for scholars worldwide. His was the first architect’s collection to attempt to preserve the best in design for the architectural profession in the future, and it did so by assembling as exemplars surviving drawings by great Renaissance masters and by the leading architects in Britain in the 17th and 18th centuries and his near contemporaries such as Sir William Chambers, Robert Adam and George Dance the Younger. These drawings sit side by side with 9,000 drawings in Soane’s own hand or those of the pupils in his office, covering his early work as a student, his time in Italy and the drawings produced in the course of his architectural practice from 1780 until the 1830s.

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