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The Culture of Materials and Leather Objects in Eighteenth-Century England

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The Culture of Materials and Leather Objects in Eighteenth-Century England The Culture of Materials and Leather Objects in Eighteenth-Century England Thomas Benjamin Sykes Rusbridge Department of History A thesis submitted to the University of Birmingham for School of History and Cultures the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY March 2019 University of Birmingham Research Archive e-theses repository This unpublished thesis/dissertation is copyright of the author and/or third parties. The intellectual property rights of the author or third parties in respect of this work are as defined by The Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988 or as modified by any successor legislation. Any use made of information contained in this thesis/dissertation must be in accordance with that legislation and must be properly acknowledged. Further distribution or reproduction in any format is prohibited without the permission of the copyright holder. Abstract This study of leather examines material culture in England, c.1670-1800. Following raw hide to leather, leather to object, and object to possessed commodity, this thesis traces the production, retail, and consumption of three representative leather objects: saddles, chairs and drinking vessels. The analysis of these three objects is principally informed by materials, and draws on inventories, advertisements, literary and technical texts, visual sources and ephemera, and other object types with which they shared consumption contexts, practices of making or decoration. This thesis argues, first, that the meanings consumers derived from materials, which informed their responses to objects, were created across the full life-cycle of a material: from production to consumption. Second, while leather exhibited principal properties which made it useful across several objects, its meanings and associations played out differently and unevenly across different object types. Thirdly, and consequently, in the relationship between materials and object types, objects operated as the site in which consumers could access the meaning of materials. This thesis ultimately argues, therefore, that historians should consider the relationship between object types and materials, in which each contributed towards the meaning that consumers derived from the other, to address consumer experiences of objects in the eighteenth century. i Table of Contents List of figures ........................................................................................................................... iii List of tables ........................................................................................................................... viii Acknowledgements .................................................................................................................. ix Chapter 1 - Why Leather? ........................................................................................................ 11 Chapter 2 - Frameworks and Methodologies ........................................................................... 54 Chapter 3 - The Language of Leather ...................................................................................... 83 Chapter 4 - Saddles ................................................................................................................ 142 Chapter 5 - Chairs .................................................................................................................. 205 Chapter 6 - Drinking Vessels ................................................................................................. 269 Conclusion - Materials and Meaning ..................................................................................... 333 Appendix 1 - Selection criteria for Newspaper Advertisements used in Chapter 3 .............. 341 Appendix 2 - Text transcription of A Song in Praise of the Leather Bottel .......................... 343 Bibliography .......................................................................................................................... 349 ii List of figures Figure 1.1: The head of an eighteenth-century threshing flail, used to separate grain from their chaff and straw. Museum of English Rural Life, object number 68/596 ........................ 13 Figure 1.2: A 1785 leather case for sheep shears, Museum of English Rural Life object 65/104, image © the Museum of English Rural Life (left), a 1740s gilt leather panel, Victoria and Albert Museum object number 1653-1871, image © Victoria and Albert Museum, London (right) .......................................................................................................................... 14 Figure 1.3: Object 65/104 at the Museum of English Rural Life, pictured with a corresponding pair of shears .................................................................................................... 14 Figure 1.4: An example of a mid-eighteenth century leather panel which survives in excellent condition, produced in the Netherlands, dated c. 1740-1770. V&A object number 475-1869. Image © Victoria and Albert Museum, London ...................................................................... 21 Figure 1.5: Map of the Manor of Somershall Herbert, Derbyshire, drawn on vellum, dated 1725. National Trust object 652631, image © National Trust/Ian Buxton & Brian Burch ..... 26 Figure 1.6: An eighteenth-century medicine case held at Keddleston Hall, Derbyshire. National Trust object number 109109, image © National Trust/Glenn Norwood .................. 28 Figure 1.7: A pair of eighteenth-century children’s shoes. Museum of English Rural Life object number 52/345/1 ........................................................................................................... 31 Figure 1.8: Geographic distribution of probate inventory collections used in this thesis. ....... 36 Figure 3.1: Close images of different animal leathers. Clockwise from top left: cow, calf, goat, sheep, deer, pig. Images © Laura Kapplan, shared by Bruno Pouliot. ........................... 97 Figure 3.2: Howard's 'engine', Transactions of the Royal Society, (London, 1674) p. 97. .... 105 Figure 3.3: National Trust object 3151101. Image © National Trust Images / John Hammond ................................................................................................................................................ 117 Figure 3.4: National Trust object 3230680. Image © National Trust / Rebecca Farr ........... 118 Figure 3.5: Samuel Pepys pocket wallet, National Leather Collection object number 1319.65. Image © the National Leather Collection .............................................................................. 126 Figure 3.6: Reverse of National Leather Collection object number 1311.65. Image © the National Leather Collection ................................................................................................... 127 Figure 3.7: National Trust object number 930599. Image © National Trust / Robert Thrift 130 Figure 3.8: National Trust object number 1127784. Image © National Trust / Robert Thrift ................................................................................................................................................ 130 iii Figure 4.1: (left) A. van Calraet, A Horse with a Saddle Beside it, c. 1680, (oil on oak, 34.2 x 44.4 cm), National Gallery, London, (right) A. van Calraet, The Start, c.1680-1722 (oil on panel, 32 x 47 cm) National Galleries Scotland, Edinburgh. ................................................. 142 Figure 4.2: Saddle c.1550, object 1993-31/950, Shakespeare Birthplace Trust, Stratford-upon- Avon. Image © the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust. ................................................................ 152 Figure 4.3: Object 78A-1893, V&A, London, side view (pictured with stirrups attached). 155 Figure 4.4: Object T.184-1914, V&A, London, side view. ................................................... 155 Figure 4.5: The underside of T.184-1914, showing the padded panel in relation to the main leather body. ........................................................................................................................... 156 Figure 4.6: Left: H. Bunbury, ‘A bit of blood’, printed by W. Dickinson (London, 1746 or 1747), Lewis Walpole Library, call number Bunbury 787.08.01.01. Right: H. Bunbury, 'How to ride a horse upon three legs', printed by W. Dickinson, (London, 1746). Lewis Walpole Library, call number Bunbury 786.09.01.06. ......................................................................... 177 Figure 4.7: V&A object T184-1914, showing the three distinct layers of a saddle and method of connection. ......................................................................................................................... 182 Figure 4.8: Item 1634-1888:A, V&A, London. ..................................................................... 185 Figure 4.9: 1634-1888 underside. .......................................................................................... 185 Figure 4.10: Items W32A-1921 and W32B-1921, V&A, London, view of front-facing side of objects. ................................................................................................................................... 187 Figure 4.11: The back-facing side of W32B-1921. ............................................................... 187 Figure 4.12: Item T.184A-1914, V&A, London, side view showing top surface and under layer........................................................................................................................................ 189 Figure 4.13: Item T.184A-1914,
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