Final Phd S Dyer

A Thesis Submitted for the Degree of PhD at the University of Warwick Permanent WRAP URL: http://wrap.warwick.ac.uk/90149 Copyright and reuse: This thesis is made available online and is protected by original copyright. Please scroll down to view the document itself. Please refer to the repository record for this item for information to help you to cite it. Our policy information is available from the repository home page. For more information, please contact the WRAP Team at: [email protected] warwick.ac.uk/lib-publications Trained to Consume: Dress and the Female Consumer in England, 1720-1820 Serena Dyer A thesis submitted in part fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in History Department of History University of Warwick September 2016 i CONTENTS Abstract v Declaration vi Acknowledgments vii Abbreviations viii List of Figures ix List of Tables xiv List of Graphs xiv INTRODUCTION 1 0.1 Understanding Consumption 11 0.2 Material Culture: Approaching Dress and Fashion 18 0.3 The Gendered Consumer 25 0.4 Methodology and Sources 30 0.5 Thesis Structure 40 SECTION ONE: THE CULTURE OF THE CONSUMER 47 Chapter One 48 Political Economy, Consumption, and the Consumer 1.1 The Rise of the Consumer 49 1.2 Gender and the Consumer 54 1.3 Luxury and the Consumer 57 1.4 Credit, Control, and the Consumer 61 i 1.5 The Active Consumer and the Conscious Consumer 66 1.6 The Consumer, Luxury, and Foreignness 71 1.7 Taxation and the Consumer 76 1.8 Conclusion 81 Chapter Two 83 Representing the Consumer: Idleness and Productivity 2.1 Sources: Visual and Literary Culture 84 2.2 Day Goblins and Female Rakes, 1710-1740 86 2.3 Controlling the Consumer, 1740-1775 91 2.4 The Consumer’s Work, 1775-1820 98 2.5 The Deviant Consumer, 1775-1820 102 2.6 The Productive Consumer 109 2.7 Conclusion 117 SECTION TWO: TRAINING AND THE LIFECYCLE 119 Chapter Three 120 Training the Child Consumer 3.1 Pedagogy and Parenthood 122 3.2 Economic Literacy and the Pocket Book 125 3.3 Experiencing Education 129 3.4 Sewing and the Evidence of Material Literacy 134 3.5 Play Dolls and Fashion Dolls 140 3.6 Play and the Commercial and Material Worlds 149 ii 3.7 Conclusion 155 Chapter Four 156 The Consumer Cycle 4.1 Young Women and the Marriage Market 158 4.2 Marriage, Household Management, and Pin Money 174 4.3 Fashionable Consumption in Old Age 186 4.4 Conclusion 194 SECTION THREE: THE MATERIAL LIFE OF THE CONSUMER 196 Chapter Five 197 Barbara Johnson: Consumer and Chronicler of Fashion 5.1 Barbara Johnson and her Family 199 5.2 The Barbara Johnson Album 203 5.3 Training Barbara: Jane Johnson, Education, and the Child Consumer 208 5.4 Variety, Novelty, and Choice 217 5.5 Fashion’s Favourite: The Rise of Cotton Textiles 223 5.6 Gifts, the Life-Cycle, and the Dynamics of Ownership 226 5.7 The Album as a Chronical of Fashion 230 5.8 Conclusion 237 Chapter Six 239 Skill, Needlework, and Making: The Producer and the Consumer 6.1 Consumer-Producer Relations 241 iii 6.2 Production at Home: Consumers as Producers 248 6.3 Judgement and Taste: Navigating the Retailer 262 6.4 Conclusion 267 SECTION FOUR: CONTEXTUALISING THE CONSUMER 269 Chapter Seven 270 The Patriotic Consumer in England and France 7.1 The Reign of French Fashion, 1750-1770 272 7.2 Extravagant Extremes: á l’Anglaise and á la Française, 1770-1789 283 7.3 The Patriotic Consumer, 1789-1815 296 7.4 Conclusion 308 CONCLUSION 310 BIBLIOGRAPHY 315 iv ABSTRACT The impact of burgeoning consumerism and a new ‘world of goods’ has been well established in scholarly research on eighteenth-century England. In spite of this, we still know surprisingly little about the consumer. This thesis seeks to recover the figure of the consumer and establish its position as a key economic and social player on both the domestic and international stage. It argues for a significant shift in conceptual and practical attitudes to the consumer over the course of the eighteenth century. The consumer became a positive and productive economic force, and increasing emphasis was placed on training and cultivating this figure throughout a person’s lifecycle. This thesis focuses on the female consumer of dress. Women of the elite and middling sort were often the agents through which concerns about luxury and commercial corruption were raised. They also regularly engaged in the production of the items they consumed, bringing into question the artificial division placed between production and consumption in scholarly work. In order to tackle the nuanced character of the female consumer of dress, this thesis adopts an interdisciplinary approach, combining traditional archival research with an examination of contemporary literary, visual, and material culture. This approach paints a picture of a skilled and knowledgeable consumer, whose economic and material literacy was trained from childhood, and maintained throughout the lifecycle. v DECLARATION This thesis is my own work and has not been submitted for a degree at another university. vi ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This thesis would not have been possible without the unwavering support, intellectual stimulation, and pastoral care provided by my supervisor, Prof. Giorgio Riello. He has read countless drafts of chapters, and has been exceedingly generous with his time and attention. His rigorous academic standards, and his patience, have been invaluable, and I am grateful to him for pushing me to be the best historian I can be. I have been very lucky to have received financial support while studying for my PhD. First and foremost, I am extremely grateful to the ESRC for funding my studies. I am also grateful to the British Federation of Women Graduates for awarding me the Marjorie Shaw Scholarship to fund the completion of my thesis. I would never have started my journey towards the completion of this PhD without the inspirational support of the staff and students of the Centre for Eighteenth Century Studies at the University of York. Moreover, it never could have continued without the encouragement and assistance provided by the staff and my fellow PhD students in the Department of History at the University of Warwick. I am grateful for the helpful advice and suggestions provided by delegates at BSECS and CHORD conferences, and at the IHR; and for the many helpful conversations I have had with friends and colleagues. In particular, Harriet Still and James Davies have patiently listened to me talk at length about my ideas and arguments. Finally, I would like to thank my parents, and in particular my father, David Dyer. His hard work, love, and unending support have helped me to believe I can achieve anything I want to achieve. vii ABBREVIATIONS BA: Bedford Archives BM: British Museum BOD: Bodleian Library, Oxford DRO: Derbyshire Record Office ERYA: East Riding of Yorkshire Archives GA: Gloucestershire Archives GYBA: Great Yarmouth Borough Archives KA: Kent Archives LLIU: Lilly Library, Indiana University LA: Lincolnshire Archives LRO: Lancashire Record Office MOL: Museum of London TNA: The National Archives NA: Northamptonshire Archives NRO: Norfolk Record Office OBP: Old Bailey Proceedings Online VAM: Victoria and Albert Museum WCRO: Warwickshire County Record Office WSRO: West Sussex Record Office WYAS: West Yorkshire Archive Service YCA: York City Archives viii LIST OF FIGURES Figure 0.1. Fan, Rule Britannia, 1760, paper leaf with ivory sticks, Fan Museum, London, 1575 2 Figure 0.2. Detail of fan, Rule Britannia, 1760, paper leaf with ivory sticks, Fan Museum, London, 1575 3 Figure 2.1. James Caldwell, after John Collett, The Unwelcome Customer, 1772, British Museum, 1860,0623.22 95 Figure 2.2. Isaac Cruikshank, Miseries of Human Life, 1808, Derbyshire Record Office, D5459/3/20/6 101 Figure 2.3. After John Collet, Shop-Lifter Detected, 1787, Lewis Walpole Library, 787.08.10.0 108 Figure 2.4. C. Williams, The Haberdasher Dandy, 1818, Lewis Walpole Library, 818.0.22 112 Figure 2.5. Messers Harding, Howell and Co., 1809, British Library, Ktop XXVII. From Repository of Arts (London: Rudolph Ackermann, 1809) 115 Figure 3.1. Doll’s dress, 1805, Museum of London, A21412 135 Figure 3.2. Back view of doll’s dress, 1805, Museum of London, A21412 136 Figure 3.3. Inside view of doll’s dress, 1805, Museum of London, A21412 136 Figure 3.4. Doll’s pelisse, 1810, Museum of London, A21160 138 Figure 3.5. Doll’s petticoat, 1750, Museum of London, A21960e 140 Figure 3.6. Mannequin, 1765, 175cm, Pelham Galleries, Paris 144 Figure 3.7. Mannequin, 1765, 175cm, Pelham Galleries, Paris 145 Figure 3.8. Fashion Doll, 1755-1760, Victoria and Albert Museum, London, T.90 to V-1980 146 ix Figure 3.9. The History of Little Fanny (London: S. & J. Fuller, 1810) 152 Figure 3.10. The History of Little Fanny (London: S. & J. Fuller, 1810) 154 Figure 4.1. Edward Francis Burney, An Elegant Establishment for Young Ladies, 1805, Victoria and Albert Museum, London, P.50-1930 162 Figure 4.2. Edward Francis Burney, detail from An Elegant Establishment for Young Ladies, 1805, Victoria and Albert Museum, London, P.50-1930 163 Figure 4.3. Edward Francis Burney, detail from An Elegant Establishment for Young Ladies, 1805, Victoria and Albert Museum, London, P.50-1930 164 Figure 4.4. Robe à la Française, 1730, Brooklyn Museum Costume Collection at Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2009, 2009.300.1089 170 Figure 4.5. Brussels lace lappets, 1720-1730, Powerhouse Museum, Sydney, H5111- 43 171 Figure 4.6. Gown, 1780-1790, Fashion Museum, Bath, BATMC I.09.2004 177 Figure 4.7.

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