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Design for a closet
Drawing: R. Smythson (c. 1600)
Source: RIBA British Architectural Library Drawings & Archives Collection

In this drawing by Robert Smythson we yet again see the Elizabethan love of pattern. This time, however, fashion is combined with a practical use.

These drawings show the elevations of the four walls of an extraordinary closet. Smythson has been ordered to produce designs that exploit this small space to the maximum. His patron is a man of wealth and letters. The walls need to have shelves that store all manner of things: books, loose papers, maps and ink. And, as this is to be a working space too, desks, good lighting and a fire are provided for the scholar-master to peruse his papers.

Smythson’s solution is to create an interior completely filled with shelving. But these are no ordinary shelves. Unconventionally, these are arranged like masonry patterns: the largest shelves are found near the floor, the stone courses diminishing as they reach the ceiling, the sections staggering as they rise. Books and objects are thus conveniently stored by size: the result is simple, effective, and to the pattern-mad Elizabethans, aesthetically pleasing.