Dear Colleagues,
This will interest some of you.
Best regards,
Ken
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Sir John Soane's Museum Press Release
Concise Catalogue of drawings now available on-line
The great collection of drawings built up by Sir John Soane
(1753-1837), one of the finest collections in the world, is now
accessible on-line through a concise catalogue on the Museum's
website: For the first time researchers will be able to check the
contents of the drawings collection on-line, before making a Library
appointment. It is particularly appropriate that this new catalogue,
which will make Soane's work so much more accessible to all, should
be launched at the start of the 250th anniversary year of his birth.
The catalogue contains some 30,000 entries and consists not only of
drawings from John Soane's own architectural practice (including the
celebrated watercolours he commissioned to illustrate his Royal
Academy lectures) but also of drawings by other architects and
artists collected by Soane up until his death in 1837. Architects
represented in the collecti on include the Jacobean John Thorpe, Sir
Christopher Wren, Sir William Chambers, George Dance the Elder and
Younger, James Playfair, John Carr a nd William Kent as well as
lesser known names such as Henry Hakewill, Thomas and Joseph Bateman
and Launcelot Dowbiggin junior. The collection includes architectural
perspectives by Piranesi, Lerisseau and J.M. Gandy and work by
topographical artists such as John Robert Cozens, George Cooper,
Richard Dalton and Edward Dodwell. Students of sculpture will be
interested in a volume of designs for monuments by Scheemakers,
Rysbrack, Nollekens and others, while those whose interest lies in
the field of ornamental drawings will wish to see details of several
volumes of English, French and Italian designs dating from the 15th
to the 18th centuries. The only drawings not included are Soane's
collection of drawings by Robert and James Adam. In short, it is a
very rich and varied collection, likely to be of interest and use to
a wide range of people: architects, architectural historians,
artists, designers, builders and other craftsmen, to name but a few.
This is a concise, or outline catalogue, rather than a full catalogue
arranged scheme by scheme. The arrangement follows the order in which
the drawings are stored (as they were in Soane's day): some loose in
folders or plan chests, others in bound volumes, and a smaller number
in frames on the walls of the Museum. Drawings for a particular
scheme will often be found in several different locations within the
collection, and ability to search the on-line catalogue will
therefore be immensely helpful.
Images are not included on the website, but the catalogue is designed
to accompany a set of microfilms of the drawings, available for some
years from ProQuest Information and Learning (formerly
Chadwyck-Healey) and already purchased by a number of libraries in
the UK and overseas (contact for further details).
For more information about the Concise Catalogue of Drawings and for
images contact Susan Palmer, the Archivist, on 020 7440 4245
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Ken Friedman, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Leadership and Strategic Design
Department of Leadership and Organization
Norwegian School of Management
Visiting Professor
Advanced Research Institute
School of Art and Design
Staffordshire University
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