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James Adam, James Essex and an altar-piece for King’s College Chapel, Cambridge
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 11 April 2016
Extract
On 24 December 1767 Richard Potenger, Fellow of King’s College, Cambridge, and lately Under-Secretary of State, wrote to the Provost of King’s, John Sumner, as follows:
You will please to recollect, that at our last meeting, when the affair of the new altar to be built in our Chapel was under consideration, I took the liberty of mentioning Mr Adams as the architect, in my opinion, most proper to be employed for drawing the plan. I have therefore, in consequence of your permission and in concert with Dr Baker, talked with Mr Adams upon the subject, whom I find very ready and well-pleased to undertake the plan, which, I dare say, he will do with taste, and in a manner suitable to the grandeur of our Chapel.
Adam was by no means the first architect considered or approached to design a new altar-piece for King’s College Chapel. Almost a decade earlier, in late 1758 or early 1759, Sir James Burrough was consulted by the College and in consequence submitted two plans, both of which, ‘as it was to be a work of public view and of lasting use, Mr Upton, as was thought advisable, took with him to London for the opinion of those who might be competent judges in such a matter’. The judgement was not very favourable; all those consulted emphatically agreed that the altar must be gothic. ‘Mr Stewart particularly is of this opinion, which I mention the rather as he is well known to disapprove entirely of the present fashionable taste for Gothic architecture.’ From this remark it would appear that the ‘Mr Stewart’ consulted was in fact ‘Athenian’ Stuart, at that time back in England preparing his Antiquities of Athens for publication. In accordance with the advice, the College approached another architect, James Essex. Essex had at that time been working with Burrough and ‘the Provost was lately informed that it was probable Mr Essex had assisted Sir James in drawing this plan, and upon enquiring of Mr Essex he finds that Mr Essex was the person who actually drew the plan under the direction of Sir James’.
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- Copyright © Society of Architectural Historians of Great Britain 1978
References
Notes
1 Letter in a folio of correspondence and memoranda, Altar-piece 1742-75 (hereafter referred to as AP), p. 11, in the Muniment Room of King’s College, Cambridge.
2 Willis, R. and Clark, J. W., The Architectural History of the University of Cambridge (Cambridge, 1886), p. 526 Google Scholar. Undated Congregation memorandum in Provost Sumner’s hand, AP, p. 3.
3 J. Upton, Fellow, in a letter of 6 March 1759 to Provost Sumner, AP, p. 7.
4 Undated Congregation memorandum in Provost Sumner’s hand, AP, p. 3.
5 Congregation memorandum in Sumner’s hand, dated 1 November 1766, AP, p. 9. See Willis, R. and Clark, J. W., The Architectural History of the University of Cambridge (1886), i, p. 526 Google Scholar for a discussion of the altar money.
6 The design is attributed, without supporting evidence, to Robert Adam in Bolton, A. T., The Architecture of Robert and fames Adam (1922), 1, 97 Google Scholar.
7 Richard Potenger in a letter of 25 March 1769 to the Provost, AP, p. 19.
8 Richard Potenger in a letter of 25 March 1769 to the Provost, AP, p. 19.
9 For Fleming’s comparison of Robert’s and James’s gothic see Fleming, John, Robert Adam and his Circle (1962), p. 91 Google Scholar; for his discussion of James’s character see pp. 86-90.
10 Richard Potenger in a letter of 18 April 1769 to the Provost, AP, p. 21.
11 Bill from Robert and James Adam to the College, AP, p. 37.
12 Bolton, 1, 98, n. 29.
13 William Cole in a letter dated 2 January 1771 to Essex, BL Add. MS 6771, f. 213v.
14 James Essex, ‘Plans and Heads of an Intended History of Gothic Architecture’, 1770, BL Add. MS 6771, f. 200r.
15 Willis and Clark, p. 527, give the final cost as £1,652. 9s. 3d., but there is no mention of this figure in the Mundum Books 1770-71 to 1775-76. The total of the relevant entries under ‘Reparaciones Novi Templi’ (confirmed in AP, p. 35) is £2,017. 2s. 0d., which includes Adam’s charges but not those of Essex. I should like to thank Dr Philip Ford for checking the figures in the Mundum Books.