Comparative drawings of Soane's initial and altered designs for the State Paper Office and the Banqueting House, September 1829 (2)

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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: New State Paper Office, Duke Street, Westminster, 1829-34 (207)

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Reference number

SM (41) 82/1/5 (42) 82/1/4

Purpose

Comparative drawings of Soane's initial and altered designs for the State Paper Office and the Banqueting House, September 1829 (2)

Aspect

41 Elevations of the State Paper Office as in design 'no 2' and as altered, and of the Banqueting House on trompe l'oeil scrolled paper 42 Part elevations of the State Paper Office as in design 'no 2' and as altered, and of the Banqueting House on trompe l'oeil scrolled paper

Scale

(41, 42) bar scales of 7/12 inch to 10 feet

Inscribed

41 B, (in Soane's hand) N^o 2 Design for the new State Paper / Office / Estimated expense of this Design £17,600 / Altered by me from the first / Design approved by the Keeper of the / State Papers according to Directions given me, Design for the new State Paper Office / altered from my Design / Estimated expense of this Design £21,500 / This design drawing was made from sketches / sent to me for that purpose, C, N^o 3 the 21,500 / Includes the inter / -nal alterations 42 (in Soane's hand) N^o 1, N^o 2 (twice), (in Richardson's hand) Part of the Exterior of a design for the / new State Paper Office imitated from / the Architecture of Vignola, Palladio, / Inigo Jones, Sir C Wren &^c by a / professional Architect / Estimated expense of the / building £17,600 / (in Soane's hand) 1800 fittings, (in Richardson's hand) Part of the Exterior of the proposed / new State Paper Office according / to the dilettanti Architecture of the / present day / Estimated expense of this / plan £21,500 / (in Soane's hand) 1800 fittings, (in Richardson's hand) The Classical Architecture of Inigo Jones / compared with the dilettanti / Architecture of the present day

Signed and dated

(41) John Soane Arch^t

Medium and dimensions

(41, 42) Pen, sepia, yellow ochre, black and blue washes, pricked for transfer on laid paper (242 x 403, 269 x 470)

Hand

Soane office

Watermark

(41) W Weatherley 1829 (42) fleur-de-lis above cartouche with bar and below, ornate WW

Notes

Soane's designs having been submitted to the Office of Works for approval, Henry Goulburn, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, made the suggestions of removing the quoins and adding two storeys of pilasters in imitation of the Banqueting House on Whitehall (q.v. drawing 27). Soane's comparative drawings were made to show the contrast between his design (on the left of drawing 41 and 'No 1' on drawing 42) and the design with Goulburn's alterations, and between the altered design and the Banqueting House. Specifically, drawings 41 and 42 draw attention to the difference in scale between the State Paper Office and the Banqueting House.

In his notes on the two drawings, Soane explains how his design is inspired by 'Vignola, Palladio, Inigo Jones, Sir C Wren &c' whereas Goulburn's design represents the 'dilettanti architecture of the present day'. Furthermore, Soane gives the estimates for the two buildings - £17,600 to Soane's design and £21,500 to Goulburn's design.

Drawings 41 and 42 are given a trompe l'oeil effect of being drawn on scrolled paper for presentation purposes.

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

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.

Browse (via the vertical menu to the left) and search results for Drawings include a mixture of Concise catalogue records – drawn from an outline list of the collection – and fuller records where drawings have been catalogued in more detail (an ongoing process).