[9-14] Preliminary variant elevations for a domed House of Lords, one dated August 179(?)3 (6) NB no digital images for drawing 13 (b) and (c) flyers 16/3/5 noted to SP

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Sir John Soane office drawings: the drawings of Sir John Soane and the office of Sir John Soane
- Office of Works
  - London: Palace of Westminster: designs for alterations and additions, 1793-1828 (499)
    - London: House of Lords, Palace of Westminster: unofficial (mostly domed) designs, 1793 - May 1794 and after February 1795 (58)

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Reference number

SM (9) 16/3/8 (10)16/3/10 (11) 16/3/9 (12) 16/3/7 (13) 16/3/5 (14) 16/3/6

Purpose

[9-14] Preliminary variant elevations for a domed House of Lords, one dated August 179(?)3 (6) NB no digital images for drawing 13 (b) and (c) flyers 16/3/5 noted to SP

Aspect

9 Sketch design for a thirteen-bay flank elevation with domed wings, and seven-bay return elevation
10 Elevation of a seven-bay front close to that of drawing 9, and a five-bay elevation with Ionic portico, the four columns supporting (above the cornice) four pedestals with statues
11 Finished version of drawing 9 with eight added niches for statues, and sketch alternative elevation with a central dome
12 Elevation with eight Corinthian columns and a central dome with sketch (pencil) additions of part-elevation, detail of elevation, and part-plan
13 Wall and stair plan, elevation with six columns, a variant of drawing 12. On left-hand side, flyers with alternative elevations: (a) triple arched (b) with Corinthian order and (c) with windows
14 Wall plan and elevation with six-column portico, alternative arrangement of pilasters to either side and a central dome

Scale

(9) to a scale (10) bar scale of 1/16 inch to 1 foot (11-13) bar scales of 1/10 inch to 1 foot (14) to a scale of 1/10 inch to 1 foot

Inscribed

(9) some pencil calculations
(10) (feint pencil) Elevation next Westminster Abbey and Elevation next the River
(11) a a a a a a and a a a to be equal and a few very feint and illegible pencil inscriptions
(12) (pencil) 150. above / plinth
(13) (pencil) to centre arch / 25.0 / centre / arches 41-0 and (beneath flyer) with a Colonnade

Signed and dated

(10) Aug^st (very feint and partly illegible) 179 (?) 3

Medium and dimensions

(9) Brown pen and sepia wash, pencil, pricked for transfer on thin wove paper with three fold marks (543 x 682) (10) pen, blue, raw umber, sepia and black washes, pencil, two elevations each drawn with trompe l'oeil scrolls and with overall triple ruled black and sepia wash border on stout wove paper (975 x 610) (11) pen, brown pen, sepia washes, pencil, pricked for transfer, on thin wove paper, two sheets joined, two old repairs with one fold mark (548 x 973) (12) pen, brown pen, pencil, sepia wash, brown ink wash, pricked for transfer on thin wove paper (518 x 658) (13) pen, pencil, sepia washes, shaded, pricked for transfer on thin wove paper with two fold marks and with two flyers (530 x 680), flyers (221 x 278/275) (14) pen and sepia washes, shaded, pricked for transfer on thin wove paper with four fold marks (557 x 676)

Hand

(9-14) Soane ?

Notes

The sketch elevation added to drawing 11 has a central dome, and so, it seems, do the subsequent drawings 12 to 13 which also explore different solutions for the wings. However, the finished elevations, drawings 15 and 16, have domes at each end of the principal or flank elevations. The only clue as to when the drawings were made is on drawing 9 and though 'Aug^t' is clear, the year is not though it might be 1793. It was in August 1793 that Soane was asked to supply survey drawings of the Palace of Westminster to a dozen architects, to help them in making designs for the reconstruction of the House of Lords. He was not one of the invited architects. Of the two drawings that follow (15 and 16) one is dated 30 April 1794 (q.v.).

Literature. S.Sawyer, Soane at Westminster, PhD thesis Columbia University, 1999, p,233 (drawings 9,11)

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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