Luxury in the Eighteenth Century
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
Luxury in the Eighteenth Century Frontispiece, Bernard Mandeville, The Fable of the Bees: or, Private Vices, Publick Benefits, first edition, 1714 (courtesy of the British Library, London). Luxury in the Eighteenth Century Debates, Desires and Delectable Goods Edited by Maxine Berg Professor of History and Director of the Warwick Eighteenth Century Centre University of Warwick and Elizabeth Eger Research Fellow Department of English University of Liverpool Editorial Matter and Selection © Maxine Berg and Elizabeth Eger. Chapters 1–16 © Palgrave Macmillan Ltd 2003 Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2003 ISBN 978-0-333-96382-1 All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission. No paragraph of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, 90 Tottenham Court Road, London W1T 4LP. Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. The authors have asserted their rights to be identified as the authors of this work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. First published 2003 by PALGRAVE MACMILLAN Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS and 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010 Companies and representatives throughout the world PALGRAVE MACMILLAN is the global academic imprint of the Palgrave Macmillan division of St. Martin’s Press, LLC and of Palgrave Macmillan Ltd. Macmillan® is a registered trademark in the United States, United Kingdom and other countries. Palgrave is a registered trademark in the European Union and other countries. ISBN 978-0-230-51779-0 ISBN 978-0-230-50827-9 (eBook) DOI 10.1057/9780230508279 This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully managed and sustained forest sources. A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Luxury in the eighteenth century : debates, desires and delectable goods / edited by Maxine Berg and Elizabeth Eger. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. 1. Luxury – History – 18th century. 2. Wealth – History – 18th century. 3. Economic history – 1600–1750. 4. Economic history – 1750–1918. I. Berg, Maxine, 1950– II. Eger, Elizabeth. HC52.5 .L89 2002 306.3–dc21 2002075805 10987654321 12 11 10 09 08 07 06 05 04 03 Contents List of Plates vii List of Contributors x Acknowledgements xii Introduction 1 Maxine Berg and Elizabeth Eger Part I Debates 1 The Rise and Fall of the Luxury Debates 7 Maxine Berg and Elizabeth Eger 2 Mandeville, Rousseau and the Political Economy of Fantasy 28 Edward Hundert 3 Luxury in the Dutch Golden Age in Theory and Practice 41 Jan de Vries 4 Aestheticising the Critique of Luxury: Smollett’s Humphry Clinker 57 Michael McKeon Part II Delectable Goods 5 Furnishing Discourses: Readings of a Writing Desk in Eighteenth- Century France 71 Dena Goodman 6 The Circulation of Luxury Goods in Eighteenth-Century Paris: Social Redistribution and an Alternative Currency 89 Laurence Fontaine 7 Custom or Consumption? Plebeian Fashion in Eighteenth-Century England 103 John Styles Part III Beauty, Taste and Sensibility 8 From the Moral Mound to the Material Maze: Hogarth’s Analysis of Beauty 119 Annie Richardson 9 From Luxury to Comfort and Back Again: Landscape Architecture and the Cottage in Britain and America 135 John Crowley v vi Contents 10 Vase Mania 151 Jenny Uglow Part IV The Female Vice? Women and Luxury 11 Performing Roxane: The Oriental Woman as the Sign of Luxury in Eighteenth-Century Fictions 165 Ros Ballaster 12 Luxury, Satire and Prostitute Narratives 178 Vivien Jones 13 Luxury, Industry and Charity: Bluestocking Culture Displayed 190 Elizabeth Eger Part V Luxury and the Exotic 14 Luxuries or Not? Consumption of Silk and Porcelain in Eighteenth-Century China 207 Shelagh Vainker 15 Luxury, Clothing and Race in Colonial Spanish America 219 Rebecca Earle 16 Asian Luxuries and the Making of the European Consumer Revolution 228 Maxine Berg Index 245 List of Plates 1a. Jan Jansz. Van de Velde, ‘Still-Life with a Pipe-Lighter’, 1653. Ashmolean Museum, Oxford. 1b. Jan Davidsz. De Heem, ‘Still-Life of a Banquet Side-table’ (‘Pronk stilleven met ham’), 1646. Gift of Edward Drummond Libbey (1955.33), Toledo (Ohio) Museum of Art. 2a. Jacob Backer, ‘Regentessen van het Burgerweeshuis’, 1633/34. Amsterdam Historisch Museum. 2b. Adriaen Backer, ‘Regentessen van het Burgerweeshuis’, 1683. Amsterdam Historisch Museum. 3. Pieter de Hooch, ‘Two Women at a Linen Chest with a Child’, 1663. Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam. 4. ‘Matthew Bramble Recognises Some Ancient Friends’, from Tobias Smollett, The Expedition of Humphry Clinker, 1793. Bodleian Library, University of Oxford, engraving opposite page 61, Vet A5 e.4243. 5. Bonheur-du-jour, open, with marquetry ‘à decor de nature morte et frises d’en- trelacs’, attributed to Topino, Louis XV period. Musée Cognacq-Jay, Paris, museum no. J0380; ©Photothèque des Musées de la Ville de Paris/Pierrain. 6. The same bonheur-du-jour, closed, with marquetry showing writing instru- ments. Musée Cognacq-Jay, Paris, museum no. J0380; ©Photothèque des Musées de la Ville de Paris/Lifermann. 7. One of a pair of oval bonheur-du-jours, with marquetry of teapots and ware in the Chinese style, stamped Topino, c. 1775. Sotheby’s. 8. ‘Lady’s bonheur-de-jour writing table, 1765 (tulipwood veneer on oak mounted with Sèvres porcelain plaques and gilt bronze) by Martin Carlin (c. 1739–85). The Bowes Museum, Barnard Castle, Co. Durham/Bridgeman Art Library. 9. ‘The Modiste’ (La Marchande de Modes: Le Matin), ascribed to François Boucher. Reproduced by permission of the Trustees of the Wallace Collec- tion, London. 10. George Stubbs, ‘The Haymakers’, 1785. ©Tate Gallery, London 2001 (TO2256). 11. H. Walton, ‘Woman Plucking a Turkey’, 1770s. ©Tate, London 2001. 12. ‘The Third State’, plate 1 of William Hogarth, The Analysis of Beauty, March 1753. ©The British Museum, London. 13. ‘The First State’, plate 2 of William Hogarth, The Analysis of Beauty, March 1753. ©The British Museum, London. 14. John Plaw, ‘Plan, Elevation and Sections of a Hermitage’, from Rural Archi- tecture; or Designs, from the Simple Cottage to the Decorated Villa..., London, 1796. Courtesy, The Winterthur Library: Printed Book and Periodical Collection. vii viii List of Plates 15. John Wood, ‘Cottages with Two Rooms’, from A Series of Plans for Cottages or Habitations of the Labourer..., London, 1806. Courtesy, The Winterthur Library: Printed Book and Periodical Collection. 16. James Malton, ‘Design 7’, from An Essay on British Cottage Architecture, London, 1798. Courtesy, The Winterthur Library: Printed Book and Periodi- cal Collection. 17. Andrew Jackson Downing, ‘Design IX: Regular Bracketed Cottage’, from Architecture of Country Houses, New York, 1852. Courtesy, The Winterthur Library: Printed Book and Periodical Collection. 18a. Wedgwood ‘First Day Vase’, 1769, front showing figures. Image courtesy of the Wedgwood Museum Trust Limited, Barlaston, Staffordshire. 18b. Reverse showing inscription. Image courtesy of the Wedgwood Museum Trust Limited, Barlaston, Staffordshire. 19. Boulton and Fothergill, Pattern Book I, p. 129, Designs for Tea Urns. Birmingham City Archives (ref: B&W/vol169/129). 20. Pair of Ewers, Boulton and Fothergill, Soho Factory, ormolu and Blue-John, c. 1772. Birmingham Museums & Art Gallery (museum no. 1946 M & 71). 21. Wedgwood vase with relief of ‘The Apotheosis of Homer’, designed by John Flaxman, blue jasper, 1786, front. ©The British Museum, London. 22. Benjamin West, preparatory design for a ceiling painting intended for the Queen’s Lodge at Windsor, known as ‘British Manufactory Giving Support to Industry’, 1791. Cleveland Museum of Art (museum no. CMA 1919.108). 23. ‘The Famous Roxana’, frontispiece from Daniel Defoe, Roxana: or, The For- tunate Mistress, 1742 edition. Bodleian Library, University of Oxford, fron- tispiece from Vet A4 f.16. 24. ‘Roxolana’, from Richard Knolles, Generall Historie of the Turkes, 1603. Bodleian Library, University of Oxford, p. 759, from Vet A2 c.1. 25. Portrait of Lady Mary Wortley Montagu in Turkish dress, attributed to Jean Baptiste Vanmour. Courtesy of the National Portrait Gallery, London. 26. ‘An Evening View on Ludgate Hill’, satirical print, 1749. Courtesy of the Guildhall Library, Corporation of London. 27. ‘Exterior of Montagu House’, watercolour. Courtesy of the Guildhall Library, Corporation of London. 28. Joseph Bonomi, ‘Mrs Montagu’s Great Room, Montagu House’. RIBA Library Photographs Collection. 29. Joseph Bonomi, ‘Design for the Great Drawing Room, Montagu House, for Mrs Montagu’. RIBA Library Photographs Collection. 30. Joseph Bonomi, ‘Design for a Lampstand for the Staircase, Montagu House’. RIBA Library Photographs Collection. 31. Joseph Bonomi, ‘Design for a Carpet’. RIBA Library Photographs Collection. 32. Ewer with the arms of Peers, porcelain with overglaze enamel decoration and gilding, China, c. 1730, height 20.5cm. Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, EA 1978.130 Given by his family in memory of Alderman C.J. Peers. 33. Porcelain dish with underglaze blue and overglaze enamel decoration, depicting characters from the novel Shuihu zhuan (The Water Margin). China, List of Plates ix c. 1700, diameter 20cm. Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, EA X.3532 Mallett Bequest. 34. Chair cover, silk and gold thread kesi tapestry weave, China, eighteenth century, 171.5 ¥ 52cm. Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, EA 1965.105 Given in memory of A.W. Bahr. 35. Silk panel, probably from a screen, depicting peach, bamboo, narcissus and fungus embroidered in satin stitch, China, eighteenth century, 126 ¥ 46cm. Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, EA 1965.78 Given in memory of A.W. Bahr. 36. Cope, made up from sections of Chinese embroidered silk satin, late eighteenth–early nineteenth century. L. 149.5cm, W. 304cm. By kind per- mission of the Dean and Canons of Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford.