Plan of a grid structure, possibly representing the timber bearers of a paving

WRE/7/4/9

Pen and brown ink with yellow-ochre wash. Single large sheet with central horizontal and vertical folds. 98.8 x 66.4 cm. Countermark: PVL conjoined.

A finished design for a grid plan, for the bearers of a large floor but not at St Paul’s Cathedral. Unknown draughtsman. Probably early eighteenth century. No scale. The size of this single sheet suggests an early eighteenth-century date; the PVL countermark is found on drawings from the 1690s onwards. The purpose of the design is unclear. The cataloguer of the Bute Collection sale in 1951 thought it may illustrate the bearers of the nave pavement and included it with others for St Paul’s as no.31 in a sequence of 32. The marble pavements at St Paul’s do not have timber bearers and any plan of the nave pavement would have to show the outlines of the arcade piers.

Access to the Wren office drawings held at London Metropolitan Archives is available only with advance notice and at the discretion of the Heritage Services Director, London Metropolitan Archives, 40 Northampton Road, London, EC1R 0HB.

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