ABSTRACT
It is hard to say why Adam often devised so many variants. Possibly the absence of any practical purpose gave him a freedom which his fertile mind enjoyed exploiting. Certainly some of his variants are shown only in sketches, and these variants may merely be early ideas. Nevertheless, he often submitted several alternative designs to his clients. One example of this occurred at Kelburn where he charged for ‘3 or 4 different designs’, although the Soane Museum actually has well-finished drawings for four unbuilt designs as well as a fifth built one. Perhaps Adam sometimes saw the finished drawing for a design and decided not to submit it. Or perhaps he sometimes submitted more designs than he felt he could reasonably charge for.
