Sets 1-6: Measured architectural drawings attributed to John Izard
Middleton. This group of 25 drawings is for six different buildings.
The dates and watermarks range from 1808-1813, and all of the buildings
are in the Adamesque style. Five sets of designs are for country
houses including one set for a villa, and one set is for a greenhouse.
None of the designs is known to have been executed.
Sets 1-3 are initialed "J. I. M" and are dated 1811 and 1813.
Set 4 is neither initialed nor dated, but has the same format (ink with
watercolor) and is on the same paper as some of the drawings in the
first three sets with paper watermarked 1808-1809. Sets 5-6 are in
pencil on paper by different manufacturers, but some of these drawings
are also watermarked 1809. All six of the following sets of drawings
appear to be by the same architect and to have notations in the same handwriting:
(1) "Plan for a House for South Carolina" "J. I. M. 1811.--No.1.--"
Designs for a villa with one tall story on a high basement. One floor
plan and four elevations. The plan shows two apse-ended rooms, and
it has structural details for the roof. The ground floor has elliptical
arches. A hipped roof is partially conceiled by a parapet with a
Doric entablature. The front door surround has Doric columns, and
a piazza has slender Doric columns.
(2) Design for a country house marked "J. I. M. 1811. No.2."
Two plans and 1 elevation. This two-story house has a high basement
and a hipped roof fronted by a parapet with a dentil cornice. The
plans show four apse ended rooms and one circular room. A semi-circular
porch has slender Ionic columns and a pair of curving steps.
(3) Design for a green house marked "J. I. M. 1813."
Three sheets of elevations with one in ink and watercolor and the other
two in pencil. The main elevation has four Roman Doric columns in
antis with glass in between, and a Palladian window is at one end of the
building.
(4) Design for a country house with two stories on a low
basement. Three plans, three elevations, and one section. The
main front has a one-story Roman Doric portico, and each side has a semi-hexagonal
projection. An alternative plan and elevation are included.
Watermarked 1808 and 1809.
(5) Design for a country house with two stories and a monumental
Roman Doric portico with four columns. One plan and elevations.
The back of the house has a pair of semi-hexagonal projections. The
plan has an elliptical staircase and a built-in bath tub with cisterns
(c. 1810).
(6) Designs for a country house with two stories.
Two plans and 2 sheets of elevations. This house is basically L-shaped,
and it was given two main fronts: what appears to be the land side
has a one-story Roman Doric portico (with a door opening into a central
hall), and what may be a river front has a two-story Roman Doric portico
(giving a one-room wing the appearance of a temple-form building).
The plan shows an oval staircase and a built-in bath tub (c. 1810).
Set 7: Elevation for flanking wings by "Thos. Walker Feby. 4th 1809." In the center of this single drawing is a two-story house marked "Old House." It appears to date from c. 1790, and it has a high basement, a tall hipped roof, and a one story porch with a slightly projecting portico. Walker designed alternatives for a pair of adjacent wings. Both wings have round projecting bays, and one bay has three windows and the other a Palladian window. Both wings were to have a high basement to match the house, but mezzinine floors rather than a full second story. The house and each wing was to be of similar width, and the architect noted "The whole Extends 160 feet."
Set 8: Design to enlarge Middleton Place. Four pencil sketches including one marked "Plan for altering & adding to Middleton Place. Front view. W. M. 1864." These designs relate to a others which were prepared for William Middleton in 1863 by a builder Fred J. Smith, and they were intended to be used to greatly enlarge Middleton Place and to change its style to resemble 17th Century Dutch architecture. (N. B. The related designs are in the Middleton Place collection; Mills Lane, Architecture of the Old South: South Carolina, 2nd ed., 1984, p. 248).
Set 9: Miscellaneous drawings (19th Century): Two measured architectural drawings are for a stable. One sheet of measure drawings for a gate; since an alternative has a large "M," the designs may be for Middleton Place. Perspective drawing in ink and watercolor of a Cambridge, England, street scene with a Great St. Mary's Church, medieval houses, and 18th Century store fronts (watermarked 1803). Pencil and watercolor color wheel.
Set 10: Maps of the Eastern United States "drawn by Henry Middleton
Jun[io]r. 1867." One map is of the New England states, and the other
is of states from New York to North Carolina. These pencil drawings
appear to have been based on printed atlas plates.