Tag Archives: Architect

Cartoons and Caricatures

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Newcastle University is currently in the process of cataloguing the Sir Terry Farrell Archive, a collection of professional practice material from renowned architect, planner and urban designer Sir Terry Farrell. In amongst all the plans, correspondence and reems of project based material you would expect from an architecture firm there are also some more whimsical items. Namely caricatures and cartoons of urban features, people and the natural world.

Caricatures of employees often crop up in the collection. These caricatures entitled ‘The Tycoon Twins’ were intended to be hung in the company offices. They were created by Sir Terry depicting Stefan Krummeck and Gavin Erasmus, Directors of Farrells, Hong Kong. The correspondence note reads ‘I think the side by side pictures made them look as though they are arguing or not speaking, with the original option, one above the other, they look as though they are working together.’ The side-by-side option was clearly seen as being more effective.

Photograph of a selection of 4 items from the Sir Terry Farrell Archive, including a typed memo, notes and two drawing of caricatures of side portraits.
Memos and presentation options for ‘The Tycoon Twins’ (uncatalogued collection).
Two caricatures side-by-side, contained within 2 circles are side portraits of people, titled 'The Tycoon Twins'.
‘The Tycoon Twins,’ by Sir Terry Farrell 2008 (uncatalogued collection).

Other caricatures are less formalised and are dotted throughout the concept and design sketches, possibly as a moment of distraction or procrastination.

Stylised drawings also make an appearance in some project work. Here are some sketched images showing the historical development of the Hungerford Bridge District, London from 1669 at Hungerford House and the construction of the suspension footbridge in 1845. These were also displayed in the company offices.

Photograph containing 5 sketches of the development of the Hungerford Bridge from 1669-20th century.
Stages of development of Hungerford Bridge from 1669 – 20th century (uncatalogued collection).

Sketching on the move is a common theme that runs through this collection. Caricatures form some of the material presumably produced by Terry when he was on his various travels. These images were located in a peculiar folder titled ‘Train portraits’. Maybe someone you know has been unwittingly sketched by Sir Terry.

‘Train Portraits,’ by Sir Terry Farrell 2006 (uncatalogued collection).

Aside from buildings and people, there are also some beautiful drawings of elements of the natural world which have been anthropomorphised. These trees form a series of artworks titled ‘The Old Men of Maytham,’ and include an Oak, a Beech and a Spanish Chestnut.

2 sketches of trees titled' Old Men of Maytham'. One is a sketch of an oak tree and the other a Beach tree.
‘The Old Men of Maytham,’ by Sir Terry Farrell, April 2010 (uncatalogued collection).
Sketch of a Spanish Chestnut tree, titled 'Old Men of Mayhem'.
‘The Old Men of Maytham,’ by Sir Terry Farrell, April 2010 (uncatalogued collection).

Material has been used with permission of Farrells. Sir Terry Farrell’s archive has been generously loaned to Newcastle University Library and is currently being catalogued. Once catalogued it will be made fully available to the public.  All rights held by The Terry Farrell Foundation. 

Micrographia – June 2010

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Drawing of a microscope
Drawing of a microscope from Hooke, R. Micrographia, or, Some physiological descriptions of minute bodies made by magnifying glasses: with observations and inquiries thereupon.
(London: Printed by J. Martyn and J. Allestry, 1665) (Pybus (Professor Frederick) Collection, Pyb. R.iii.2)

“The most ingenious book that I ever read in my life.” Samuel Pepys (diary, 21st January 1665).

Robert Hooke (1635-1703) was a natural philosopher and architect: he was curator of experiments for the Royal Society, Gresham Professor of Geometry, was chief assistant to Christopher Wren (the method by which the dome of St. Paul’s Cathedral was constructed was conceived by Hooke), Surveyor to the City of London following the Great Fire and indeed devised a set of planning controls for London which have retained some relevance.

He has been described as an irascible and querulous man and he fell into dispute with Isaac Newton over who should take credit for work on gravitation. His reputation suffered and it was only in the Twentieth Century that he was repositioned as one of the most important scientists of the Seventeenth Century.

Hooke’s Micrographia was the first major publication of the Royal Society and, capturing public imagination in a radically new way, became the first scientific best seller. The book includes planetary bodies, the origin of fossils and the wave theory of light but its main focus, and what was so exciting, were the descriptions and magnificent copperplate engravings of the things which he observed through a microscope – the stinger of a bee, the eyes of flies, seeds, and so forth. A previously invisible microscopic world was revealed. Micrographia is also notable for Hooke’s invention of the biological term ‘cell’ after walled plant cells reminded him of monks’ quarters.

Drawing of a blue fly
Drawing of a blue fly from Hooke, R. Micrographia, or, Some physiological descriptions of minute bodies made by magnifying glasses: with observations and inquiries thereupon.
(London: Printed by J. Martyn and J. Allestry, 1665) (Pybus (Professor Frederick) Collection, Pyb. R.iii.2)

The plates shown here (below) depict Hooke’s microscope; a hairy mould, “multitudes of which [Hooke] found to bespeck & whiten over the red covers of a small book, which, it seems, were of Sheeps-skin, that being more apt to gather mould, even in a dry and clean room, then other leathers” and a blue fly, which he describes as “a very beautifull creature“.

Drawing of mould on Hooke's plate
Drawing of mould on Hooke’s plate from Hooke, R. Micrographia, or, Some physiological descriptions of minute bodies made by magnifying glasses: with observations and inquiries thereupon.
(London: Printed by J. Martyn and J. Allestry, 1665) (Pybus (Professor Frederick) Collection, Pyb. R.iii.2)

The edition held in Special Collections is part of the Pybus Collection of c.2,000 books which had been brought together by local medic and surgeon, Professor Frederick Charles Pybus (1883-1975). It has the armorial bookplate of The Right Honourable Francis Lord Brooke on the front pastedown and ms annotations on the title page.