Lot 24 is a pen and brown ink drawing by Robert Adam which is a preliminary design for an urn in the dining room at Osterley Park, Middlesex, dated 1766. This exquisitely executed design is a rare survival by the foremost Neoclassical architect of the 18th century. The drawing depicts a design for an urn that was intended to be one of a pair placed upon pedestals, made of carved, painted and gilded wood, with the finished examples attributed to John Linnell, which are still on display in the house today.

Robert Adam was born at Kirkcaldy in Fife on 3 July 1728 and was the second son of William Adam – an architect and entrepreneur in his own right. In Edinburgh where Robert attended the High School and in 1743 matriculated at the University, Robert met some of the leading figures in Scottish intellectual life. In the mid-1740s Adam left University without a degree and entered into his father’s drawing office in the Canongate. Lot 23, is a portrait bust attributed to Thomas Carter and depicts Robert Adam's father, the architect William Adam. In 1748, his father died and Robert along with his brother John decided to form a partnership in order to carry on their father’s business as architect’s and contractor’s.

After leaving Edinburgh in 1754, he went to Brussels with the Hon. Charles Hope, whose friendship allowed Adam to enter into aristocratic society wherever he went. In Florence he persuaded the French architectural designer Clerisseau to join him, thus acquiring the services of a brilliant draughtsman with a strong interest in the neo-classical. It was in Rome however that Adam studied drawing and antiquity assiduously, acquiring the knowledge and expertise that would enable him to set up in practice as a fashionable architect.

On his return from Italy in 1761, he became a Fellow of the Royal Society, now established in practice, Adam set out to revolutionise English domestic architecture. In place of the rigid grammar of the orders as described by Vitruvius and interpreted by Palladio, he substituted a new and elegant repertoire of architectural ornament based on a wide variety of classical sources ranging from antiquity to the Cinquecento. His style quickly gained widespread acclaim and, within a few years, became the dominant influence on London's architecture, replacing the previously favoured Palladian style.

However it was Adam’s interior design revolution that made the greatest impact. His ingenious and imaginative planning ensured a progression of varied and interesting shapes being placed in regular rooms of earlier Georgian architecture. All the decorative walls, ceilings, carpets, furniture etc. were highly elegant, varied and sophisticated incorporating Renaissance motifs such as putti, urns and griffins, as well as neo-classical motifs as portrayed in Lot 26, a design for a neoclassical ceiling by George Richardson.

For nearly 30 years Adam was one of the two or three busiest architects in England, but he was only given few opportunities for monumental design on a large scale. Architectural drawings by Robert Adam rarely appear on the open market, this is due to nearly 9,000 of his works being purchased by Sir John Soane in 1833, which helped form the principal treasures of the Sir John Soane's Museum.

Auction Details

Ending Tuesday 26 November, from 12 noon GMT.
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