Hi Mo,

Great find ! I can see elements of Serlio floor joist arrangements on the left and right hand side of the floor plan. This is reciprocal framing and if you check out my Christmas book list you will find a reference for a well illustrated new book concentrating on this timber framing technique.

Both the flooring and wall arrangments are typical Georgian town building techniques and this is still present today in significant quantities in major cities like London, Edinburgh & Boston however most of this timberwork is usually completely concealed by plasterwork and floor boards or in the case of high quality work the wall framework is covered by expensive stretched fabric (silk) finishes.

I am interested by your opening statement and would ask how you are able to make this statement with any degree of confidence ? Is there documentary evidence that substantiates this claim ? There are a number of good Georgian timber framed building pattern books (Newlands) and thus I would rather suspect that the design of this type of building is not actually first principals conceptual design work but more stylistic copying.

Can you also please explain your "hand in hand" framing term ?

Regards

Ken Hume