ARCHITECTURE - JOHN SOANE View of the Proposed Hall at Wotton House, signed ('John Soane/ arch.') and inscribed ('View of the Hall. Wotton house'), remains of title 'Plans of Wotton/ House' in another hand on reverse, one page cut from a larger sheet, pencil with sepia and grey wash, dust-staining and marks, some discolouration, some losses at edges, creased at folds, 4to (221 x 187mm.), [1820] Footnotes: A fine drawing by Sir John Soane (1753-1837) depicting a proposed plan for the hall at Wotton House, Wotton Underwood, Buckinghamshire, which was rebuilt after a fire in 1820 destroyed all but the shell of the early eighteenth-century house. This shows an early scheme for the hall looking west, the centre-piece of his new design, incorporating a barrel vault and coffered ceiling which was '...unlike any of the designs that would follow...' (Sir John Soane's Museum, Saving Wotton, exhibition catalogue, 2004, p.40). The design was presented to the client, Richard Grenville, Earl Temple, at Stowe on 17 November 1820 but, despite being the Duke's favoured design, our scheme was not adopted. Soane gave the house more Georgian proportions and created a double-height top-lit tribune, with a new stone staircase in place of the old entrance hall. In 1929, renovations concealed all of Soane's detailing, including the tribune, some of which was restored in the late 1950's by Donald Insall. Sir John Soane's Museum holds a larger drawing (SM 34/1/6) which shows the same view (Saving Wotton, cat.9, p.40). Studies for Soane's proposed scheme at Wotton are 'frustratingly few' (ibid, p.47) and our rare drawing thus forms an important record of Soane's intentions. Provenance: Sotheby's, Old Master & British Drawings, 6 July 2010, lot 214. For further information on this lot please visit Bonhams.com For further information about this lot please visit the lot listing