Everyday Political Objects: From the Middle Ages to the Contemporary World

317 Pages·2021·9.563 MB·English

by  Christopher Fletcher

EVERYDAY POLITICAL OBJECTS
Everyday Political Objects examines a series of historical case studies across a very
broad timescale, using objects as a means to develop different approaches to
understanding politics where both internal and external definitions of the political
prove inadequate.
Materiality and objects have gradually made their way into the historian’s toolbox
in recent years, but the distinctive contribution that a set of methods developed
for the study of objects can make to our understanding of politics has yet to be
explored. This book shows how everyday objects play a certain role in politics,
which is specific to material things. It provides case studies which re-orientate the
view of the political in a way that is distinct from, but complementary to, the study
of political institutions, the social history of politics and the analysis of discourse.
Each chapter shows, in a distinctive and innovative way, how historians might
change their approach to politics by incorporating objects into their methodology.
Analysing case studies from France, the Congo, Burkina Faso, Romania and
Britain between the early Middle Ages and the present day makes this study the
perfect tool for students and scholars in the disciplines of history, art history,
political science, anthropology and archaeology.
Christopher Fletcher is a Chargé de recherche (Associate Research Professor)
with the CNRS (Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique) affiliated to the
University of Lille. He specializes in late medieval political culture and the history
of masculinity. His books include Richard II: Manhood, Youth, and Politics, 1377–99
(2008) and The Palgrave Handbook of Masculinity and Political Culture in Europe (2018).

EVERYDAY POLITICAL
OBJECTS
From the Middle Ages
to the Contemporary World
Edited by Christopher Fletcher
First published 2021
by Routledge
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and by Routledge
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Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2021 selection and editorial matter, Christopher Fletcher; individual
chapters, the contributors
The right of Christopher Fletcher to be identified as the author of the
editorial material, and of the authors for their individual chapters, has been
asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs
and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or
utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now
known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in
any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing
from the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or
registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation
without intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Fletcher, Christopher David, editor.
Title: Everyday political objects : from the Middle Ages to the
contemporary world / edited by Christopher Fletcher.
Description: Abingdon, Oxon ; New York, NY : Routledge, 2021. |
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Subjects: LCSH: Political customs and rites—Case studies. | Political
culture—Case studies. | Object (Philosophy)—Case studies.
Classification: LCC GN492.3 .E84 2021 | DDC 306.2—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020056153
ISBN: 978-0-367-70661-6 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-0-367-70660-9 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-1-003-14742-8 (ebk)
Typeset in Bembo
by Apex CoVantage, LLC
CONTENTS
List of figures vii
List of contributors xi
Acknowledgements xiv
1 Introduction: useful things 1
Christopher Fletcher
2 Rings of power: the interpretation of early medieval
objects of adornment 13
Julie Renou
3 The practical and symbolic uses of the medieval horn:
from power object to common instrument 30
Luc Bourgeois
4 A history of domestic disorder: the French royal household
in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries 48
Gil Bartholeyns
5 The prince and his coffer: the material functions and
symbolic power of an everyday political object at the end
of the Middle Ages 62
Jean-Baptiste Santamaria
vi Contents
6 Teapots, fans and snuffboxes: the portable politics of gender
and empire in eighteenth-century Britain 81
Vanessa Alayrac-Fielding
7 Wooden shoes and wellington boots: the politics
of footwear in Georgian Britain 104
Matthew McCormack
8 The fan during the French Revolution: from the elite
to the people 120
Mathilde Semal
9 Resisting with objects? Seditious political objects and their
‘Agency’ in restoration France (1814–1830) 135
Emmanuel Fureix
10 A sonorous politics of everyday objects: coal workers’
charivaris during the Anzin strike of 1884 151
Adrien Quièvre
11 Political fashion: elegance as subversion in the Congos
of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries 170
Manuel Charpy
12 ‘Citizen Browning’: the banality of a revolutionary object,
c.1905–c.1912 209
Éric Fournier
13 Bringing audible propaganda into the everyday:
the politicization of the phonograph record from its origins
to the SERP, 1888–2000 219
Jonathan Thomas
14 Image, voice and voivodes: communist diafilm in Romania
(1950–1989) 237
Alexandra Ilina
15 The trajectory of a spear: the materiality of an everyday
political object 256
Laurence Douny
Bibliography of secondary material 274
Index 292
FIGURES
2.1 Ring with woven shank in copper alloy, white metal alloy and
glass paste. Unearthed in sepulchre 31 during excavations at
Saint-Martin Priory, Niort (Deux-Sèvres). 16
2.2 Gold ring dating from the fourth century. 19
2.3 Proportion of women and men buried with rings during the
early Middle Ages in southwest Gaul. 21
2.4 Ring in white metal alloy with a missing head. Discovered in
sepulchre 84 during excavations at the Priory of Saint-Martin,
Niort (Deux-Sèvres). 24
3.1 Earthenware horn, eleventh century. Pineuilh (Gironde),
La Mothe. 31
3.2 The Moot Horn of Winchester (Hampshire). Copper alloy,
between 1187 and the beginning of the thirteenth century. 32
3.3 Horn from the treasure of the cathedral of Saint-Maurice,
Angers. Byzantine workshop, twelfth century. Probably brought
back from the Near East by Bishop Guillaume de Beaumont
(1202–1240). Elephant ivory. 32
3.4 Konrad, Ruolandes liet, Allemagne, c. 1180–1190: the pagans
sound the horn. 33
3.5 Horn blower in a tower. Graffiti in the clock tower of
Saint-Martin de Moings (Réaux-sur-Trèfle, Charente-
Maritime), twelfth century. 34
3.6 Deer hunt, detail. Angoulême (Charente), cathedral of
Saint-Pierre, portail, c. 1118–1119. 35
3.7 The banquet at Hastings. Bayeux Tapestry. Probably
Canterbury, c. 1080. 37
viii Figures
3.8 Gregory the Great, Liber pastoralis, Saint-Amant, third quarter
of the twelfth century. 43
4.1 This is the ordinance of the household of King Saint Louis made in
the month of August in the year of Our Lord one thousand CC LXI,
manuscript of the Chamber accounts, 1316. 50
5.1 The payment of taxes to the lord. Valerius Maximus, Faits et
dits. France, fifteenth century. 63
5.2 A striking illustration of the complementarity of writing and
money. While his servants handle treasure, the king takes note
and records. Psalterium romanum, Mantova, c. 1430. 64
5.3 Alexander distributes the treasure of Philip of Macedon.
Johannes de Columna, Mare historiarum, Anjou, 1447–1450.
Maître de Jouvenel and his assistants. 70
5.4 King Arthur sleeping under his tent with his coffers. Songe
d’Arthur. Mort le roi Artu. Poitiers, around 1480. 71
5.5 The beheading of Thedebert II in the treasure room on
the orders of Thierry II in 613. Grandes chroniques de France.
Brittany, end of the fifteenth century. 76
6.1 Trade card of Esther Burney, fan-maker, 1749–1751
Anonymous, British, late eighteenth–early nineteenth century. 82
6.2 Fan, painted vellum with pierced ivory sticks and guards,
mid-eighteenth century; pastoral scene. 84
6.3 William Hogarth, Royalty Episcopacy Law. 88
6.4 A rectangular, jewelled gold-mounted mother-of-pearl
snuffbox, the cover chased with Mars, Venus and Cupid at
the Temple of Love. 91
6.5 The Excise Fan. 97
6.6 Jacobite fan. 98
6.7 Tortoiseshell box and cover with inset miniature of Prince
Charles Edward Stuart (1720–1788) late eighteenth century. 99
6.8 Josiah Wedgwood & Sons, Abolition Teapot, c. 1760. 100
7.1 Men’s silk brocade shoes (1730). 106
7.2 ‘Welladay! is this my son Tom’ (1774). 110
7.3 James Gillray, ‘Un petit soupèr a la Parisiènne, or
A Family of Sans-Culotts refreshing after the fatigues
of the day’ (1793). 112
7.4 Clogs, early nineteenth century. 113
7.5 Wellington boots, 1800–1825. 116
8.1 Folding fan, 1781. Gouached silk on ivory frame. 123
8.2 Folding fan, 1788. Gouached paper on wooden frame. 125
8.3 Brisé fan ‘Le retour de Necker,’ 1788. Gouached and
varnished wood. 126
8.4 Folding fan, 1790. Printed paper on rosewood frame. 127
8.5 Folding fan, 1792. Printed paper on wooden frame. 128
Figures ix
8.6 Folding fan, 1790. Printed paper on ivory frame. 130
8.7 Folding fan, 1787. Printed paper on rosewood frame. 130
9.1 ‘Elixir de Sainte-Hélène.’ Seditious liqueur label. 138
9.2 Traces left by a seditious gingerbread showing the
effigy of the Jesuit-King, seized in Metz in 1827. 140
9.3 Indian ink and paper copy of a coin debasing the effigy
of Charles X, found in Loudun (Vienne) in 1827. 141
9.4 Piece of seditious fabric seized by the police in
Bas-Rhin in 1824. 141
9.5 Seditious statuette with a dual effigy of Louis XVIII
and Napoléon. 143
9.6 Seditious fleur-de-lys drawn on folded paper and seized in
Toulouse, 1819. 144
10.1 Le mineur à table (around 1900). The postcard shows a family
of miners inside their home. 156
10.2 Le mineur à table (detail). Various kitchen utensils, including
pans and tong. 157
10.3 La toilette du mineur (around 1900). 158
10.4 Abscon. La fosse ‘La pensée’ (around 1900). Children posing
with their hoops. 159
10.5 Denain. Un groupe de cafus (around 1900). Women wearing
their work clothes and clogs. 160
11.1 ‘Jean Roy de Congo, à la tête de ses armées et le premier
fait Chrétien. Taken from l’Histoire des Voyages’ in Recueil
d’estampes, représentant les grades, les rangs & les dignités, suivant
le costume de toutes les nations. 171
11.2 ‘Une curieuse tombe moderne . . . d’un “civilisé” ’
[A curious modern grave . . . of a ‘Civilized’ person],
Katanga, Belgian Congo, November 1933. 174
11.3 ‘Un roitelet africain’ [An African petty king], from
Henri-Nicolas Frey and Pierre-Georges Jeanniot (illus.),
Illustrations de Côte occidentale d’Afrique: vues, scènes, croquis
(Paris: Marpon et Flammarion, 1890). 178
11.4 Chief with a medal: ‘Grand Chef des Bekalelwe.’
Yakaumbu, Kabinda (Belgian Congo), Postcard, 1910s. 180
11.5 Couple converted to Christianity. ‘Un jeune ménage à
Brazzaville, Congo français’ [A young married couple
in Brazzaville, French Congo], 1890s. 181
11.6 Monseigneur Augouard in full regalia in Brazzaville,
c. 1900. Fonds Augouard, Congo. 183
11.7 Catalogue of La Belle Jardinière, Paris for French
and foreign colonies, 1921. 184
11.8 Club of ‘evolved people,’ amateur photograph,
c. 1930, Boma (?), Belgian Congo. 185