The Petrified Music of Architecture’: The Sir Herbert Oakley Collection of Cathedral Models

2011/04/08, by Robert Becker, under Exhibits

The house and Museum of Sir John Soane, R.A., architect in London

via The Petrified Music of Architecture’: The Sir Herbert Oakley Collection of Cathedral Models.

A rare opportunity to see the collection of twenty-seven models of English and European Cathedrals that belong to the Cathedral at Canterbury. These exquisite models, made in about the 1850s of card and composition, repose under glass domes and were made by William Gorringe (d.c.1880), modelmaker by appointment to Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. This set was assembled by Sir Herbert Oakley, the distinguished composer of sacred music, and presented to the Dean and Chapter in 1916 by his brother, Edward Murray Oakley. The models are very accurate, made to the scale of 60 ft. to 1 in, and were used to illustrate Sir Bannister Fletcher’s A History of Architecture. This exhibition has been kindly sponsored by Hornby Hobbies Ltd.