| Description | DRAWINGS HOUSED IN THE STEAM BOAT BOX
1773-1867
INTRODUCTION
The "Steam Boat Box" and the large portfolio contained within is one of the most striking survivals of how Boulton Watt & Co. originally kept their records. Originally the portfolio housed in this box was used to keep "draught" or "draft drawings of vessels made in the London office and sent to Soho, circa 1820 to 1845, with a few later additions by James Watt & Co. post-1848. The original title of the portfolio was "Steam Boat Drafts." Draft drawings usually showed the hull of the boat in longitudinal section, cross-section and plan, with details such as the dimensions of the boat added on. On most, but not all of the drawings, the position of items such as masts and cabins is also shown, as is the position of the engines and paddle wheels. A few drawings simply show the hull in longitudinal section.
The portfolio then seems to have become a repository for odd steamboat items and outsize drawings, maps and plans of any description. Many of these additions were almost certainly made by either Tangye's or the Library. Some of the material may well have come from the walls of James Watt & Co.'s offices or the Watt Room.
To restore the original integrity of the portfolio and to divide the contents logically, the maps and plans have been listed separately and placed in a new portfolio. A few other stray maps and plans that were found scattered through the rest of the collection have been added. Some items that had obviously been taken out of other portfolios have been restored, for example some items relating to the steam boat Caledonia were restored to portfolio 5/1243. A small set of drawings relating to the gunboat Nemesis was also removed to its own portfolio, so the material housed in the steam boat box is now divided into three: the original portfolio of steam boat drafts; drawings of the gunboat Nemesis; and maps and plans.
The Portfolio and Box
The portfolio which housed the steam boat draft drawings has survived in the box, and is one of the few examples we have of Boulton Watt & Co.'s original storage materials. It is made out of board, partially reinforced with cloth in the centre. The spine and the corners were leather, decorated with blind tooling. The rest of the boards were covered with marble paper with strong red, yellow and blue colours - nearly all of this original marble covering has been worn away. A leather label with ornate gold tooling and bearing the legend "Steam Boat Drafts" was stuck in the centre of the front board. Eight ribbons made of either silk or fine linen were attached to the front and back covers so that the portfolio could be tied shut. Three silk flaps were attached to the inside of the back board on the three outside edges. These flaps would have been folded over the drawings when they were in the portfolio, to protect them from dust and dirt, and to stop them falling out of the portfolio.
At a later date, layers of coarse linen and marbled paper were pasted on the inside and outside of the spine, covering the original leather on the outside. This paper was similar in pattern to the original paper on the covers but lacked the strong colouring. This paper was pasted on in a very rough fashion. The leather spine was probably worn away by this point. Marble paper was also used to reinforce the silk flaps where they were attached to the board.
It is possible that the wooden box was a later addition. The only contemporary reference we have to what appears to be the "Steam Boat Box" comes in Hazleton's list of the Watt Room contents in February 1895 - this mentions the "Portfolio of Drafts of Early Steam Vessels" and does not mention the box. The hinges and the nails appear to be of a more modern construction. |