The Library and Future Publications

The Research Library

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It is not possible to guarantee access to the Research Library (Drawings Collection, Archive and Library) without a prior appointment because of the limited space available but every effort will be made to help.

To make library appointments please contact Susan Palmer or Stephen Astley at The Museum.

We can offer our expertise to help with queries relating to many fields including: the restoration of authentic historic interiors, architectural history from the 17th century to the early 19th century, the conservation of drawings and works of art and methods of display, archives, architectural models.

The Museum can provide photographs of items in the collection for research or publication (black and white and colour prints, transparencies and slides). For details of charges or to place an order please contact Susan Palmer. Tel: +44 (0) 20 7440 4251.


J M Gandy, The Breakfast Room, 12 Lincoln's Inn Fields	The Breakfast Parlour, 13 Lincoln's Inn Fields

WHAT IS AVAILABLE?

Works of Art

A manuscript inventory of the collections was prepared during Soane's lifetime and after his death in 1837 various curators produced successive manuscript inventories of the collections. None of these manuscripts inventories and catalogues, which are simple lists, was ever published.

Visitors to the Research Library can use, on request, the loose-leaf catalogue of Works of Art in the Museum. This incorporates the entries from all the previous inventories and new information is added as it becomes available. Summary of Collections.

Architectural Drawings, books and the Archive - Publications

Since 1984 the Curators - Peter Thornton (Curator 1984-1995) and Margaret Richardson (1995-) - have initiated a programme of making the collections available to a wider public.

In 1987 Chadwyck-Healey were commissioned to microfilm all the drawings. They had earlier, in 1976, published a microfilm of the Adam Collection, accompanied by a Concise Catalogue (1979). These microfilms are marketed by Chadwyck-Healey and available in academic institutions in the UK, Europe and the USA. A 'Concise Catalogue' of the 30,000 Architectural and Decorative drawings (to accompany the complete microfilm of the drawings) is at galley proof stage and is available in manuscript at the Museum. This will be put onto the internet in the near future.

There is a programme of gradual publication of the collection in scholarly catalogues produced for the Museum by Azimuth Editions and distributed by Oxford University Press. The first of these appeared in two volumes in 1998: Italian Renaissance Drawings from the collection of Sir John Soane's Museum by Dr. Lynda Fairbairn.

Future catalogues will cover the entire contents of the Drawings Collection, the library (the books, pamphlets and exhibition catalogues that formed part of Soane's original collection at his death in 1837), Classical Antiquities and Paintings. The Archive is also being fully catalogued and it is planned that this will be available in typescript at the Museum.

The planned publishing programme is as follows:

THE DANCE FAMILY CATALOGUE:

Covering the drawings of George Dance the Elder (1695-1768), architect of the Mansion House in the City and George Dance the Younger (1741-1825), one of the most original of all 18th century architects. The author of the catalogue is Jill Lever, architectural historian and former Curator of the RIBA Drawings Collection. She won the Society of Architectural Historians' Alice Davis Hitchcock Medallion in 1958 for her work as Editor of the RIBA Catalogue Series. The catalogue includes 293 drawings by Dance the Elder, including 168 for the Mansion House specially catalogued by Dr Sally Jeffery, author of The Mansion House, 1993. There are 1321 drawings by George Dance the Younger covering virtually all his commissions in private practice including his designs for Newgate Prison, Coleorton and Lansdowne House. Now available from the Museum shop, priced at £150

ROBERT AND JAMES ADAM CATALOGUE:

Volume I: The Grand Tour and Early Work. This will be the first of four catalogues covering the 9,000 drawings by Robert and James Adam, purchased by Soane at the Adam sale in 1818 and in 1833 when he bought the bulk of the drawings from the Adam practice. The drawings will be chronologically arranged. Volume I will cover the early work and training, Robert's drawings and designs on the Grand Tour up until his return in 1759 and James's drawings until his return in 1762. It will also catalogue the miscellaneous drawings collected by both Robert and James in Italy. The author of the catalogue is Professor A A Tait, Richmond Professor in the History of Art, University of Glasgow. He is the author of Robert Adam: drawings and imagination, Cambridge University Press, 1993 and Robert Adam, The Creative Mind: from the sketch to the finished drawing (Soane exhibition catalogue, 1996). Expected date of publication: 2004.

The three remaining Adam Volumes, covering the bulk of the Adam drawings, will catalogued by Stephen Astley, Assistant Curator (Drawings) at the Soane Museum.

THE CODEX CONER:

The Codex Coner is an important Italian Renaissance volume (early 16th century) of designs and drawings. The catalogue will contain entries on the 127 drawings, facsimile illustrations of each one and research into comparative material in other collections. The author will be Dr. Lynda Fairbairn.

CATALOGUE OF SIR JOHN SOANE'S LIBRARY

This will be an integrated catalogue of Soane's art, architectural and general volumes and pamphlets in his library - the only known surviving professional library of an architect of the early 19th century. It is of particular interest for a number of different reasons: Soane was the leader of his profession, he was also a connoisseur and collector and Professor of Architecture at the Royal Academy who to some extent evolved his collections as a teaching tool for architectural students. His foundation was seen as an Academy of architecture. He was also an innovator and his library contains pamphlets and volumes of considerable technical interest. The catalogue will contain essays on different aspects of Soane's library, with selected illustrations. A summary catalogue will appear on the internet.

The authors are Dr Eileen Harris, the leading architectural bibliographer whose opus British Architectural Books before 1780 was published in 1997, and Nicholas Savage of the Royal Academy Library.

General Library Cataloguing Project

Following the award of a Designation Fund Challenge Grant to re-catalogue the part of Soane's Library known as the General Library, Stephen Massil joined the staff on a three year contract in 2003. Stephen worked previously at the Huguenot Society Library.

Stephen's work will complement the work that Eileen Harris and Nick Savage have been carrying out on the Architectural Library for some years on a part-time basis. The resulting integrated catalogue of both parts of the Library (divided by Arthur Bolton in the 1920s for logistical reasons) will be published both in traditional format and on the Museum's website, where it will be freely available to all.

SIR JOHN SOANE

There are some 9,000 drawings from Soane's own office - both in his own hand and by his pupils, assistants and leading perspectivist, Joseph Michael Gandy. The evidence of the drawings can be supplemented by the surviving archive which is able to document every scheme in great detail. The catalogue project is likely to take several years: work is already underway by the Soane staff and by different scholars contributing catalogue entries and notes. It is not possible at this stage to give an expected date of publication.

GENERAL CATALOGUE VOLUMES

Apart from Robert and James Adam, the Dance family, the Italian Renaissance drawings and Soane himself, the collection includes drawings by many important architects and artists which will be the subject of two General Catalogue volumes, arranged alphabetically by name. There are some 800 drawings by Sir William Chambers and sets of designs by Sir Christopher Wren, Nicholas Hawksmoor, Willam Talman, William Kent and James Playfair as well as a volume of drawings by Nollekins, Scheemaker, Rysbrack and Roubiliac, a Reynolds sketchbook, illuminated manuscripts and others. These volumes will be edited and researched by the staff at the Museum as well as by scholars who will be invited to catalogue particular drawings or groups of drawings. It is not possible at this stage to give an expected date of publication.

CATALOGUE OF THE CLASSICAL ANTIQUITIES:

This catalogue was first prepared by Professor Cornelius Vermeule in the early 1950s as part of his Doctorate in Archaeology at University College London. Later in 1973-74 he made a number of additions to the catalogue entries. Although several typescript copies were made for distribution, the catalogue was never published. The catalogue includes the Egyptian and Classical antiquities in the Museum including sculpture, architectural and decorative fragments, bronzes, terracottas, mosaics, ceramics and gems.

Professor Vermeule will revise the format and entries adding research of the last 25 years, with the help of Professor Geoffrey Waywell of Kings College London. Dr. Martin Henig of Oxford University will revise the catalogue entries for the gem collection. The author, Professor Cornelius Vermeule, was at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts for many years, he is now retired.

CATALOGUE OF PAINTINGS AT THE SOANE:

The Soane has a small but interesting collection of paintings which include some of the finest in any British collection (two sets of Hogarths - the Rake's Progress and the Election series; three Canalettos and three by J.M.W. Turner) as well as a collection of Regency paintings by Soane's contemporaries and other miscellaneous items. Many are still in their original frames, which are often rare surviving examples of the genre. The editor of the catalogue is Helen Dorey, the Inspectress and Deputy Curator at the Museum. She is the author, with Peter Thornton, of A Miscellany of Objects from Sir John Soane's Museum, 1992.

Specialist scholars - for example the Hogarth specialist Professor David Bindman, would be invited to catalouge relevant paintings.

There are two guidebooks available: the New Description (£2.50) and the Short Description (£1). A Miscellany of Objects from Sir John Soane's Museum by Peter Thornton and Helen Dorey (Laurence King, 1992) provides an overview of the collection for a general audience. The Museum publishes two exhibition catalogues a year and also plans to produce an attractive range of picture books of which four are already available: The Soane Canalettos by J.G. Links, The North Italian Album: Designs by a Renaissance Artisan by Dr. Lynda Fairbairn, The Soane Hogarths by Christina Scull and The Soane Piranesis by Professor John Wilton-Ely. Summary of Collections.