Preliminary Programme

Wed 23 April
    8.30 - 10.30
    11.00 - 13.00
    14.00 - 16.00
    16.30 - 18.30

Thu 24 April
    8.30 - 10.30
    11.00 - 13.00
    14.00 - 16.00
    16.30 - 17.30

Fri 25 April
    8.30 - 10.30
    11.00 - 13.00
    14.00 - 16.00
    16.30 - 18.30

Sat 26 April
    8.30 - 10.30
    11.00 - 13.00
    14.00 - 16.00
    16.30 - 18.30

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Wednesday 23 April 2014 16.30 - 18.30
R-4 ELI01b A Taste for Luxury in France, Spain and Britain, c. 1750–1900 – Luxury and National Taste II
Hörsaal 42 second floor
Networks: Elites and forerunners , Material and Consumer Culture Chair: Ulla Ijäs
Organizers: Johanna Ilmakunnas, Jon Stobart Discussant: Henrika Tandefelt
Kerry Bristol : A Tale of Two Sales: Sir Rowland Winn and No.11 St James’s Square, London, 1766-1785
This paper will explore why Sir Rowland Winn, fifth Baronet, purchased No.11 St James’s Square in 1766 the year after he succeeded to the family estate of Nostell Priory, West Yorkshire, and how he and his Swiss wife Sabine d’Hervart furnished and equipped their new London home before its abrupt ... (Show more)
This paper will explore why Sir Rowland Winn, fifth Baronet, purchased No.11 St James’s Square in 1766 the year after he succeeded to the family estate of Nostell Priory, West Yorkshire, and how he and his Swiss wife Sabine d’Hervart furnished and equipped their new London home before its abrupt sale in 1785.

As if to stress Sir Rowland’s taste and ability to select the best from what London’s elite cabinetmakers and upholsterers had to offer, most secondary sources assert that Thomas Chippendale was employed to furnish the Winns’ new townhouse, much as he did at Nostell. The reality was rather different, however, because the fifth Baronet spent over £604 at Lord Macclesfield’s sale in May 1766 to acquire items including William Hogarth’s Scene from the Tempest and Cleopatra and the Asp after Guido Reni. When added to the various royal portraits and other paintings acquired in 1766, this could easily mislead one into assuming that Sir Rowland attended the Macclesfield sale intent on enhancing his art collection. In fact, he was a man in a great hurry to furnish two large, empty houses and certain rooms from Lord Macclesfield’s townhouse were purchased almost in their entirety. The Macclesfield sale also yielded more prosaic ‘downstairs’ items such as curtains, lamps, spit-racks, a copper dripping pan, a meat screen, colanders, frying pans, clothes baskets, wash bowls, blankets, quilts, leather buckets, bookcases, grates, and a porter’s chair.

Other documents preserved in the Winn archive reveal that the couple hired candlesticks, a crewet frame, sauceboats and ladles, trays, salts and shovels, and cutlery from the silversmiths Cripps & Co. from 16 April to 11 July 1766. Between 1766 and 1769, the same firm also repaired many items and sold the Winns everything from pannikins (drinking cups); spoons for olives, for tea, and for a child (perhaps for their daughter Esther born in 1768); a cheese toaster; a collar and chain for a pet squirrel; an inkstand; and ‘A Large chased Cup & Cover [with a] Red leather case’. By 1770, a sum of £343 6s 1d was owed, although this was offset by the acceptance of £74 2s 10d worth of old plate and pannikins, to bring the bill down to £269 3s 3d.

Through examination of what and where the Winns bought to equip their new townhouse, when they actually resided in it, and the financial difficulties that eventually forced its sale in 1785, I seek to demonstrate that the Winns’ relationship with their London townhouse was costly, contradictory and complex. (Show less)

Natacha Coquery : Luxury Goods beyond Boundaries. The Parisian Market during the French Revolution
Over the past twenty years, in the wake of American and British researches, there has been a growing interest for studying international circulations, whether it was cultural, political, social or economic history. In the economic area, many works revealed the importance of global trade and imported goods in the dynamics ... (Show more)
Over the past twenty years, in the wake of American and British researches, there has been a growing interest for studying international circulations, whether it was cultural, political, social or economic history. In the economic area, many works revealed the importance of global trade and imported goods in the dynamics of European capitalism all over the 17th and 18th centuries. In the consumer sector, all over Europe and its overseas territories, social elites, middle classes and even lower classes, each in their own manner, fell for the charms of the new consumer goods issuing from international – most often colonial – trade. Parisian shopkeepers played a crucial role in the diffusion of these external goods on the domestic market. During the French Revolution, the sale of the goods of the clergy and the nobility in exile has resulted in a large diffusion of luxury items in Europe. In this papier, I hope to show how Parisian merchands played a crucial role in the diffusion of these goods, blurring boundaries between internal and external markets. (Show less)

Nadia Fernandez de Pinedo, Corinne Thépaut- Cabasse : A taste for French style in the Bourbon Spain: eating, drinking and clothing in Madrid (1740’s)
Throughout the 18th century many products played a central role as social markers, especially in urban populations. However, said changes were unique in each city or region and the wealthier classes were the forerunners in access to those products. In this work in progress we will look at the changes ... (Show more)
Throughout the 18th century many products played a central role as social markers, especially in urban populations. However, said changes were unique in each city or region and the wealthier classes were the forerunners in access to those products. In this work in progress we will look at the changes produced in material practice and cultural dynamics in Madrid in the mid 18th century.

The enormous power of attraction for a broad spectrum of people of all classes, categories and incomes, converted the city of Madrid into the ideal place to study the consequences of the circulation of goods. In particular, what we will see is how in the forties nobles and middle upper class develop a taste for French style and French commodities. Purchases reflect how they bought expensive fabrics from Elboeuf, Abbeville or Carcassonne but also thin linen, drugget and calamancoes. Keeping up appearances, following up fashion involved not just textiles for dress but also affected the household demand. In the bedrooms could be seen drapery from Morlaix and French textiles were used for tablecloths as part of a new way of showing off. The comments and analysis of material culture through the archival documentation, i.e. the colors and textures, connect the five senses in a whole as the culture of appearance appeals to the sight but also the touch and the hearing.

Therefore, in this paper we will analyze new changes in demand –food & clothing- focusing on upper class purchases in the Bourbon Spain. We have used, to that effect, documents pertaining to a tax which was levied on certain goods entering the city of Madrid and which affected end users.
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Johanna Ilmakunnas : ‘Luxury of Needlework. Elite Women, Material Culture and Handicrafts in French Eighteenth-century Paintings
Eighteenth-century portraits and genre paintings depicted luxury goods and rich material culture in detail, and thus influenced on desires of consumers and distribution of luxuries among the European cosmopolitan elites. A variety of paintings portrayed elite women doing handicrafts of precious materials, stressing both the role of needlework, manual skills ... (Show more)
Eighteenth-century portraits and genre paintings depicted luxury goods and rich material culture in detail, and thus influenced on desires of consumers and distribution of luxuries among the European cosmopolitan elites. A variety of paintings portrayed elite women doing handicrafts of precious materials, stressing both the role of needlework, manual skills and luxurious materials.
The proposed paper will discuss elite women’s handicrafts in French eighteenth-century portraits and genre paintings. It draws on visual sources as paintings and written sources as letters, diaries and bills. Firstly, focus will be on the material culture pictured in paintings, and the world of manual skills, luxuries and diligent industriousness that handicrafts represented in the eighteenth-century aristocratic and elite culture. Women’s handicrafts and needlework will be discussed in wider context of European aristocratic sociability in which the French culture and French luxury goods played a key role. Secondly, focus will be on the self-fashioning of women in paintings, especially in portraits. The paper will discuss the choices and motives because of which women commissioned portraits of themselves doing handicrafts, and how they self-fashioned themselves and constructed their identity through manual skills and production of luxury goods as tapestries or embroideries of lavish and expensive materials.
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Jon Stobart : ‘A Very English Affair? Furnishing the Hanoverian English Country House’
The English elite have long drawn inspiration from contemporary and historical cultures in mainland Europe, most notably Italy and France. These influences were sometimes mediated by British architects and craftsmen, but wealthy landowners also acquired goods directly from the Continent, sometimes in the form of collecting on the Grand Tour ... (Show more)
The English elite have long drawn inspiration from contemporary and historical cultures in mainland Europe, most notably Italy and France. These influences were sometimes mediated by British architects and craftsmen, but wealthy landowners also acquired goods directly from the Continent, sometimes in the form of collecting on the Grand Tour and sometimes through shopping trips to Paris. These consumption practices have received considerable attention, but there has been little attempt to question the extent to which they spread beyond a metropolitan-oriented elite or to explore what happened when direct supplies from the Continent (and especially France) were disrupted by political tension or outright war.
This paper takes a case study approach, examining the furnishing of Stoneleigh Abbey in Warwickshire through the Hanoverian period. It draws on a rich collection of bills to assess the network of craftsmen and retailers who supplied the house: who were they and what were their credentials? It also examines the character of the furnishings supplied, not to provide a detailed furniture history, but rather to explore the style and quality of the goods: to what extent was the material culture of this English country house truly English? These questions have much wider implications, of course, for the construction of English identity and culture through the long eighteenth century.

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