6WAS £10 NOW £6.
Written by the Peter Thornton (1925-2007), former curator to the Museum, 1984-1995 and Helen Dorey, the Museum's current Deputy Director. This book features descriptions of many of the Museum's objects with photographs, primarily in colour. When Sir John Soane's house in Lincoln's Inn Fields was presented to the nation as a museum by Act of Parliament in 1833, it contained a remarkable collection of objects and works of art which had been amassed over his lifetime from his travels and from his friends and professional contacts.
The Hogarths and Turners are well known, but there is also a vast number of drawings, clocks, models, manuscripts and objets d'art that were displayed throughout the house, and that represent more accurately the breadth of Soane's tastes and interests. For this book, Peter Thornton and Helen Dorey have selected over 120 objects, ranging from paintings and sculpture to a fine watch given by Queen Anne to Sir Christopher Wren and even a bill for the Axminster carpets ordered for Soane's Library and Dining Room.
Soane was at the very centre of artistic activity in the late Georgian period, and his collections reflect the intellectual preoccupations of the time. His role as a collector is examined in an essay by Helen Dorey, which throws light on to a little-known aspect of the career of one of Britain's greatest architects.
|
