Luxury in the Eighteenth Century

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.

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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, frontispiece 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 permission of the Dean and Canons of Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford. 37. Casta painting, Vicente Albán, ‘Distinguished Lady with her Black Slave’ (‘Señora principal con su negra esclava’), Quito School, 1783. Museo de América, Madrid. 38. Skirt and frock of cotton, hand painted in India, made up in Europe. Bodleian Library, University of Oxford, Bodley 170083.A1. Copy- right courtesy of Arnold Publishers. 39. Chintz overdress, painted and dyed cotton. Bodleian Libary, University of Oxford, Bodley 17512.C.43. Copyright courtesy of the Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto, museum no. 967.176.1. 40. Chinese octagonal plate, c. 1736, with European Delft tile, used as a pattern, c. 1745, diameter of plate 22.8cm. Sotheby’s. 41. Saucer and cup with handle (‘Handle Chocolatettes’), c. 1720, diameter of saucer 14.6cm. Sotheby’s. List of Contributors

Ros Ballaster is Fellow and Tutor in English Literature, Mansﬁeld College, Oxford. She is the author of Seductive Forms: Women’s Amatory Fiction 1684–1740 (1989) and Women’s Worlds: Ideology, Femininity and the Women’s Magazine (1991).

Maxine Berg is Professor of History and Director of the Warwick Eighteenth- Century Centre at the University of Warwick. She directed the Luxury Project 1997–2001, and is now director of the Leverhulme Art and Industry Project. She is the co-editor with Helen Clifford of Consumers and Luxury: Consumer Culture in Europe 1650–1850 (1999), and author of The Age of Manufactures 1700–1820 (1994). She is completing a book entitled Consumer Delight: Modern Luxury in Eighteenth- Century England.

John Crowley is George Munro Professor of History at Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia. He is the author of The Invention of Comfort: Sensibilities and Design in Early Modern Britain and Early America (2001) and The Privileges of Inde- pendence: Neo-Mercantilism and the American Revolution. He is now researching the development of a global landscape in British visual culture 1750–1820.

Rebecca Earle is Lecturer in Comparative American Studies, University of Warwick. She has recently completed a book on New Granada in the late colonial period, and has edited a volume on Epistolary Selves: Letter Writers, 1600–1945. She is currently researching gender and race in late eighteenth and early nineteenth-century Spanish America.

Elizabeth Eger is Research Fellow in the Department of English, University of Liverpool. She was the Luxury Research Fellow in the Warwick Eighteenth- Century Centre. She is co-editor of Women and the Public Sphere (2000), and editor of The Selected Writings of Elizabeth Montagu (1999). She completed a thesis, now being revised for publication, on ‘The Nine Living Muses of Great Britain: Women, Reason and Literary Community in Eighteenth-Century England’.

Laurence Fontaine is Professor of History, The European University Institute, and CNRS, Paris. She is the author of A History of Pedlars in Europe (1996).

Dena Goodman is Professor of History at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, and author of The Republic of Letters (1994).

Edward Hundert is Professor of History, University of British Columbia and author of The Enlightenment’s Fable: Bernard Mandeville and the Discovery of Society (1994).

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Vivien Jones is Senior Lecturer in English, University of Leeds and author of How to Study a Jane Austen Novel (second edition 1997), and Women in the Eighteenth Century: Constructions of Femininity (1990).

Michael McKeon is Professor of English at Rutgers University, New York. His research interests include the prehistory of domestic ﬁction, the theory of the novel and the nature of the early modern ‘division of knowledge’. His publications include Politics and Poetry in Restoration England: The Case of Dryden’s ‘Annus Mirabilis’ (1975), The Origins of the English Novel (1987) and Theory of the Novel: A Historical Approach (editor, 2000). He is completing a new book, The Secret History of Domesticity: Public, Private, and the Division of Knowledge.

Annie Richardson is a lecturer in the History of Art and Design at the University of Southampton. Publications on Hogarth’s aesthetic theory include ‘Framing One’s Own Fortune: the Country Dance in Hogarth’s Analysis of Beauty’, DHDS Conference Proceedings, 2001, and ‘An Aesthetics of Performance: Dance in Hogarth’s Analysis of Beauty’, forthcoming in Dance Research.

John Styles is Director of the MA in the History of Design, V&A/Royal College of Art. He is the co-author of Design and the Decorative Arts. Britain 1500–1900 (2001), and the author of ‘Manufacturing, Consumption and Design in Eighteenth- Century England’ in John Brewer and Roy Porter, eds., Consumption and the World of Goods (1993) and ‘Product Innovation in Early Modern London’, Past and Present, 168, 2000, pp 124–69.

Jenny Uglow is Honorary Professor of the Department of English, University of Warwick, editor at Chatto and Windus, and author of Hogarth a Life, as well as biographies of Elizabeth Gaskell and George Eliot. She has recently published a new book on the Lunar Society, The Lunar Men.

Shelagh Vainker is curator of Eastern Arts at the Ashmolean Museum Oxford and Fellow of St Hugh’s College, Oxford. She is the author of Chinese Pottery and Porcelain from Pre-History to the Present (British Museum, 1991).

Jan de Vries is Professor of History and Economics, University of California, Berkeley, and co-author of The First Modern Economy. The Dutch Economy 1500–1815 (1997) and author of European Urbanisation 1500–1800 (1984) and ‘Between Pur- chasing Power and the World of Goods: Understanding the Household Economy of Early Modern Europe’ in John Brewer and Roy Porter, eds. Consumption and the World of Goods (1993). Acknowledgements

Luxury in the Eighteenth Century arises out of the Luxury Project, funded by the University of Warwick, 1997–2001. We are particularly grateful to Professor Anne Janowitz, now Professor of English Literature at Queen Mary Westﬁeld College, who was the Co-Director of the Project from 1997 to 1999 for her creative inspi- ration and organisational initiative in helping to shape this as an interdiscipli- nary project. Most of the essays in this volume are developed from contributions to three major conferences, three workshops and a three-year seminar series, and we would like to thank all those who participated in these. We are grateful to the University of Warwick for the research and development grant which started both the Project and the Warwick Eighteenth-Century Centre and to the British Academy for a small grant for picture reproductions for the volume. We thank Dr Claire Walsh who did the picture searches and Dr Matt Adams for editorial assistance.

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