Material Literacy in 18th-Century Britain (eBook, ePUB)

A Nation of Makers
Redaktion: Dyer, Serena; Smith, Chloe Wigston

• Format: ePub

Produktbeschreibung

The eighteenth century has been hailed for its revolution in consumer culture, but Material Literacy in Eighteenth-Century Britain repositions Britain as a nation of makers. It brings new attention to eighteenth-century craftswomen and men with its focus on the material knowledge possessed not only by professional artisans and amateur makers, but also by skilled consumers. This edited collection gathers together a group of interdisciplinary scholars working in the fields of art history, history, literature, and museum studies to unearth the tactile and tacit knowledge that underpinned fashion, tailoring, and textile production. It invites us into the workshops, drawing rooms, and backrooms of a broad range of creators, and uncovers how production and tacit knowledge extended beyond the factories and machines which dominate industrial histories.

This book illuminates, for the first time, the material literacies learnt, enacted, and understood by British producers and consumers. The skills required for sewing, embroidering, and the textile arts were possessed by a large proportion of the British population: men, women and children, professional and amateur alike. Building on previous studies of shoppers and consumption in the period, as well as narratives of manufacture, these essays document the multiplicity of small producers behind Britain's consumer revolution, reshaping our understanding of the dynamics between making and objects, consumption and production. It demonstrates how material knowledge formed an essential part of daily life for eighteenth-century Britons. Craft technique, practice, and production, the contributors show, constituted forms of tactile languages that joined makers together, whether they produced objects for profit or pleasure.

Produktdetails

• Verlag: Bloomsbury Publishing Inc
• Seitenzahl: 328
• Erscheinungstermin: 3. September 2020
• Englisch
• ISBN-13: 9781501349621
• Artikelnr.: 60046722

Autorenporträt

Serena Dyer is Lecturer in History of Design and Material Culture at De Montfort University, UK. She has published on albums, wallpaper, consumer culture and childhood in the eighteenth century. Her book, Material Lives: Women Makers and Consumer Culture in the 18th Century, was published by Bloomsbury in 2021. Chloe Wigston Smith is Senior Lecturer in the Department of English and Related Literature and the Centre for 18th Century Studies at the University of York, UK. She is the author of Women, Work, and Clothes in the 18th-Century Novel (2013), as well as articles on women in literature, material culture studies and fashion culture.

Inhaltsangabe

List of Figures List of Tables Notes on Contributors Acknowledgements 1. Introduction
Serena Dyer (De Montfort University
UK) and Chloe Wigston Smith (University of York
UK) 2. 'Work'd pockets to my entire satisfaction': Women and the Multiple Literacies of Making
Ariane Fennetaux (University of Paris
France) 3. Needlework Verse
Crystal B. Lake (Wright State University
USA) 4. Domestic Crafts at the School of Arts
Chloe Wigston Smith (University of York
UK) 5. 'To Embroider what is Wanting': Making
Consuming and Mending Textiles in the Lives of the Bluestockings
Nicole Pohl (Oxford Brookes University
UK) 6. Material Literacies of Home Comfort in Georgian England
Jon Stobart (Manchester Metropolitan University
UK) 7. Stitching and Shopping: The Material Literacy of the Consumer
Serena Dyer (De Montfort University
UK) 8. Stitching the It-Narrative in The History and Adventures of a Lady's Slippers and Shoes
Alicia Kerfoot (SUNY Brockport
USA) 9. Making
Measuring and Selling in Hampshire: The Provincial Tailor's Accounts of George and Benjamin Ferrey
Sarah Howard (Independent Scholar
UK) 10. Gendered Making and Material Knowledge: Tailors and Mantua-Makers
c. 1760-1820
Emily Taylor (National Museums Scotland
UK) 11. Dress and Dressmaking: Material Evolution in Regency Dress Construction
Hilary Davidson (University of Sydney
Australia) 12. Fancy Feathers: The Feather Trade in Britain and the Atlantic World
Elisabeth Gernerd (Historic Royal Palaces
UK) 13. Tomahawks and Scalping Knives: Manufacturing Savagery in Britain
Robbie Richardson (University of Kent
UK) 14. The Lady Vanishes: Madame Tussaud's Self Portrait and Material Legacies
Laura Engel (Duquesne University
USA) 15. Learning to Craft
Beth Fowkes Tobin (University of Georgia
USA) Select Bibliography Index