Hubert Le Sueur's equestrian statue of Charles I, cast in 1633 and sold as scrap by the Commonwealth government, was recovered in April 1675. Shortly thereafter, Robert Streater, Sergeant Painter to the King, received £2 10s. 'for makeing 2 designes on paper for the King in order to the setting up of the Statue of King Charles the first upon a Stone pedestall by Mastr Surveyors Direction'. A wooden model was made at the same time (SL 16, 263–68; HKW 5.284).
Alternative designs for the pedestal, drawn by an unidentified draughtsman, 1675 (404-405):
404 - AS IV.54. Design for a free-standing pedestal. Brown ink and grey wash. 452 x 295 mm. Watermark: Strasbourg lily WR, over HG (similar to Heawood 1784 and 1787).
405 - AS IV.55. Design for pedestal in a basin. Brown ink and grey wash over pencil sketching. 452 x 592 mm. Watermark: Strasbourg lily WR, over HG; P.
Note to 404-405: These are presumably the '2 designes on paper' for which Robert Streater received £2 10s. in May 1675. No authenticated drawings by Streater survive.
[WS 5, pls. 38–39; Sekler 1956, 46]
406 - AS IV.56. Preliminary design for the pedestal, 1675. Elevation and half plan, drawn by Wren to a scale of just 10½ inches to an inch. Nearly as built, but with significant variations. Brown ink over scorer. 355 x 227 mm. Watermark: Strasbourg lily WR. Pencil additions:
- (i) alterations to the plan;
- (ii) carved decoration in the angle to the L of the panel;
- (iii) an oval frame on the central panel;
- (iv) hanging garlands or scrolls to L and R; and
- (v) the base of the statue.
Note to 406:
This is much closer to the executed structure (compare SL 16, pl. 16). The draughtsmanship is consistent with Wren's linear drawing technique of the mid-1670s (compare 32, 33, 123, 130, 132). The pedestal was built by Joshua Marshall in 1675–76.[WS 5, pl. 40]