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Variant design
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Reference number
SM volume 42/27
Purpose
Variant design
Aspect
Elevation of a tablet to be executed in white and yellow/brown marble. At the top, two recumbent consoles with a veined leaf between, the sides taper to a similar but smaller double scroll motif at the bottom and the cornice has a bold convex moulding
Scale
to a scale
Inscribed
(pencil) W. Phillips (not traced)
Signed and dated
- datable to c. 1771
Medium and dimensions
Brown pen with raw sienna and sepia washes on laid paper (125 x 87)
Hand
unidentified
Notes
This preliminary design is by the same hand that made a fully worked out drawing to a larger scale (SM volume 57/88) in which the wall tablet is of white and green marble. Anthemion motifs replace leaves, the cornice moulding has leaf and dart enrichment and, at the bottom, a fluted band with a roundel bearing a blank shield is more clearly shown.There is a similar wall tablet to the memory of Sir John Kemp Bart (1754-71) in the Cloister of Westminster Abbey (east walk, second bay from north). An Old Boy of Westminster School he died young and the tablet was erected by two his school friends (neither of them a 'W.Phillips') with a permission from the Abbey dated 14 May 1771. The Kemp tablet is of white and green marble and varies by having a fret moulding below the cornice, and the roundel with a shield (carved with wheat sheaves) is larger. The designs at the Soane Museum seem to be related to the Kemp monument though it might be a case of the carver re-using the same basic design. See also 42/6, 42/118 for designs for chimney-pieces in the same hand as SM volume 57/88.<>Information from Miss C.Reynolds, Assistant Keeper of Muniments, Westminster Abbey Library & Muniment Room, 17 July 2007.
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