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Wednesday 12 April 2023 16.30 - 18.30
P-4 MAT01b Auctions and Households. Comparative Perspectives across the Globe, 17th-20th Centuries II
E44
Network: Material and Consumer Culture Chair: Jon Stobart
Organizers: Bruno Blondé, Anne Sophie Overkamp, Jon Stobart Discussants: -
Kerry Bristol : Buying Old? Selling New? Auctioneers and St James’s Square, London, in the Long Eighteenth Century
Taking as its starting point the death sales of George Parker, Earl of Macclesfield (d.1764), and Sir Rowland Winn (d.1785), successive owners of No.11 St James’s Square, this paper explores the sale by auction of contents of townhouses in the most fashionable address in London in the eighteenth century by ... (Show more)
Taking as its starting point the death sales of George Parker, Earl of Macclesfield (d.1764), and Sir Rowland Winn (d.1785), successive owners of No.11 St James’s Square, this paper explores the sale by auction of contents of townhouses in the most fashionable address in London in the eighteenth century by assessing the nature of the items on offer, the proportion of ‘upstairs’ versus ‘downstairs’ goods, and whether distinctions can be made between new and ancestral possessions. What was acceptable to sell in this most elite of residential areas? In the cases of Macclesfield and Winn, the lack of an entail meant that their widows could sell both house and whatever contents they wished and Lady Macclesfield’s decision to sell the reception room furniture enabled the Winns to acquire much of it in situ as well as a ready-equipped kitchen, laundry and ancillary areas; items that were then resold by James Christie when Lady Winn sold up in 1785. At No.20 St James’s Square, an entail had to be broken before Allen Apsley, Earl Bathurst, could sell the house to Sir Watkin Williams Wynn, who died deeply indebted. As a result, contents sales took place in 1771 and 1789. Other contents sales to be examined are at No.15, home of the bachelor Thomas Anson (d. 1773); No.4, inherited from her grandfather, the Duke of Kent, by Jemima, Marchioness Grey (d.1797), and her husband Philip Yorke, Earl of Hardwicke (d.1790); and at No.31, the townhouse of the Dukes of Norfolk. (Show less)

Anne Sophie Overkamp : A Window of Opportunity – the Country House Sales at Haus Hueth, 1792-1827
Between 1792 and 1827, the owners of Haus Hueth, a country house on the Lower Rhine near Emmerich, held a total of five auctions to divest themselves of both household goods such as furniture and textiles but also of collectibles like books. In 1795, they even auctioned off the wooden ... (Show more)
Between 1792 and 1827, the owners of Haus Hueth, a country house on the Lower Rhine near Emmerich, held a total of five auctions to divest themselves of both household goods such as furniture and textiles but also of collectibles like books. In 1795, they even auctioned off the wooden remains of the lime alley leading from the Rhine to the house that had been felled by the Imperial troops.
Regarding these auctions, rich archival material has survived: It includes the various auction protocols listing the goods, the prices reached as well as the names of the buyers and their places of origin. Furthermore, the archive contains probate inventories which list the contents of the house prior to auction as well correspondence between the steward who organised these auctions and the Borcke family, the owners of the house. Also, for some of these sales, advertisements were placed in the contemporary press and auction catalogues were published. Records from the estate that name tenants and other dependants provide the opportunity to trace individual buyers.
Thanks to these comprehensive records, this paper proposes a micro-historical study to reveal firstly the household strategies of the sellers and how these fluctuated between economic concerns and the wish to divest themselves of unfashionable goods. Secondly, this study illuminates the dissemination of formerly elite goods and considers how and how far the material culture of a country house spilled over into its surroundings. By juxtaposing the auction protocols, it can trace recurrent buyers and reveal some of their household strategies. Thirdly, by considering the “public” records concerning the auctions as well as the “private” correspondence, it will engage with the idea of the auction as both a social venue and a commercial circuit. (Show less)



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