J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1802-18 Academician and professor > Work for Earls Egremont and Lonsdale ... > Lowther Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Building Accounts for Sandycome Lodge (Inscriptions by Turner) 1809

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Building Accounts for Sandycome Lodge (Inscriptions by Turner)’ 1809
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 13 Recto:
Building Accounts for Sandycome Lodge (Inscriptions by Turner) 1809
D07872
Turner Bequest CXIII 13
Inscribed by Turner in ink (see main catalogue entry) on white wove paper, 114 x 83 mm
Inscribed by John Ruskin ‘13’ bottom left, descending vertically
Stamped in black ‘CXIII 13’ bottom left, descending vertically
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Turner’s accounts are as follows:
Timber for floor, doors, &c                  4 
do. for lathing                              1. 5 
do. for Roof                                 3 
do. at Kilsby’s                              1 
Tayler wages. 11 weeks                      17.10 
Turners do. for floors                       1.13 
For Roof to Ditto                            1. 4 
Chimney Pieces and hearth                    1. 6 
Nails                                        2 
Locks, bolts                                 1 
Shutters                                     1.  5 
Lime                                             7. 6 
Jack’s time for fetching Timber 
From Brentford                               1 
Window frames to Turner                      1.17 
To Glazing do.                               2 
Oven. Carriage                               1.10 
D doors                                      2 
Lathes–sink stone                            1 
Together with further accounts written inside the covers of the sketchbook (D07853, D07854) these must relate to materials and labour for the construction of Turner’s house at Twickenham, Sandycombe Lodge; the sum for ‘Timber From Brentford’ confirms this. Turner had bought the land for the house in 1807 and may now be drawing up detailed estimates before work started on the site. Youngblood notes that the figure given for ‘Tayler wages’ equates to three shillings and one penny per day for a five-day week, or one penny more a day than the wage then recommended for labourers,1 suggesting that Turner dealt fairly with tradesmen despite his reputation for miserliness.

David Blayney Brown
July 2009

1
For example by John Plaw, Country Houses, Villas and Rural Dwellings, London 1800, p.8.

How to cite

David Blayney Brown, ‘Building Accounts for Sandycome Lodge (Inscriptions by Turner) 1809 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, July 2009, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, December 2012, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-building-accounts-for-sandycome-lodge-inscriptions-by-turner-r1135827, accessed 22 November 2024.