Love Objects: Emotion, Design and Material Culture

185 Pages·2014·1.878 MB·English

by  Anna Moran, Sorcha O'Brien

Love Objects
i
ii
Love Objects
Emotion, Design and
Material Culture
Edited by Anna Moran and
Sorcha O’Brien
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Bloomsbury Academic
An imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
5 0 Bedford Square 1385 Broadway
London New York
W C1B 3DP NY 10018
UK USA
www.bloomsbury.com
Bloomsbury is a registered trade mark of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
First published 2014
© Anna Moran and Sorcha O’Brien, 2014
Anna Moran and Sorcha O’Brien have asserted their right under the Copyright,
Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to be identifi ed as Editors of this work.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or
transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical,
including photocopying, recording, or any information storage or retrieval
system, without prior permission in writing from the publishers.
No responsibility for loss caused to any individual or organization acting on or refraining
from action as a result of the material in this publication can be accepted
by Bloomsbury or the author.
British Library Cataloguing-i n-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
ISBN: HB: 978-0-8578-5846-7
PB: 978-1-4725-1719-7
ePDF: 978-1-4725-7638-5
ePub: 978-1-4725-1718-0
Library of Congress Cataloging-i n-Publication Data
Love objects: emotion, design, and material culture / [edited by] Anna Moran and Sorcha O’Brien. — 1 [edition].
pages cm
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-85785-846-7 (hardcover) — ISBN 978-1-4725-1719-7 (pbk.) 1. Attachment behavior.
2. Symbolism. 3. Material culture. 4. Love. I. Moran, Anna, editor of compilation.
BF575.A86L68 2014
152.4’1--dc23
2013045880
Typeset by Refi neCatch Limited, Bungay, Suffolk

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To our loved ones.
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CONTENTS
List of illustrations ix
Notes on contributors xi
Editors’ foreword xiv
Acknowledgements xvi
Introduction: How Do I Love Thee? Objects of Endearment in
Contemporary Culture 1
Victor Margolin
SECTION 1: The Lives of Objects 7
1 ‘I Love Giving Presents’: The Emotion of Material Culture 9
Louise Purbrick
2 (S)mother’s Love, or, Baby Knitting 21
Jo Turney
3 Sex, Birth and Nurture Unto Death: Patching Together Quilted
Bed Covers 31
Catherine Harper
SECTION 2: Projecting and Subverting Identities 41
4 Bringing Out The Past: Courtly Cruising and Nineteenth-C entury
American Men’s Romantic Friendship Portraits 43
Elizabeth Howie
5 The Genteel Craft of Subversion: Amateur Female Shoemaking in the
Late Eighteenth and Early Nineteenth Centuries 53
Noreen McGuire
6 Performing Masculinity Through Objects in Postwar America:
The Playboy’s Pipe 63
Jessica Sewell
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viii CONTENTS
SECTION 3: Objects and Embodiment 73
7 Seduced by the Archive: A Personal and Working Relationship with the
Archive and Collection of the London Couturier, Norman Hartnell 75
Jane Hattrick
8 Kitsch, Enchantment and Power: The Bleeding Statues of
Templemore in 1920 87
Ann Wilson
9 ‘Magic Toyshops’: Narrative and Meaning in the Women’s Sex Shop 99
Fran Carter
SECTION 4: Mediating Relationships 111
10 Material Memories: The Making of a Collodion Memory-T ext 113
Christina Edwards
11 The Problematic Decision to Live: Irish-R omanian Home-M aking
and the Anthropology of Uncertainty 125
Adam Drazin
12 Designing Meaningful and Lasting User Experiences 137
Jonathan Chapman
Bibliography 149
Index 161
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
Cover: Pair of women’s coral-red silk slip-on shoes, with ribbons and white kid lining, c. 1827.
The right shoe bears the label of Melnotte, a French fi rm of shoemakers and sellers, which
boasted warehouses in both Paris and London. Source: 1969.46.6P. The Shoe Collection,
Northampton Museums and Art Gallery, Northampton Borough Council. Photograph by John
Roan Photography.
1.1 Pyrex ovenware plate, Corning Glassworks. 10
1.2 An example of gift articles in a commercial setting, 2013. 13
2.1 Lisa Obermeyer – B lood- line , 2006. 24
2.2 Clare Qualmann – K nitted Cover for 3 Kids , 2003. 25
2.3 Françoise Dupré – B rooder , 1999. 26
3.1 Unknown maker, detail of Ulster utility quilt, wool coat and cotton fabric,
Ballyrobert, near Bangor, Northern Ireland, c. 1900–1910, 94 × 165 cm. 33
3.2 A patchwork bedcover (quilt), hand pieced ‘template’ style of Turkey red
and plain white cotton. 35
3.3 Tracey Emin, Automatic Orgasm , appliquéd blanket, 2001, 263 × 214 cm. 37
3.4 Catherine Harper, B lush , velvet fabric and thermochromic inks, 2004,
280 × 220 cm. 39
4.1 Anonymous, nineteenth century (T wo Young Men ), c. 1850. Daguerreotype,
10.8 × 8.3 cm (4¼ × 3¼ in). 45
4.2 Unknown, American (T wo Men Smoking, One Seated in the Other Man’s Lap ),
1880s–1890s, tintype. Image: 8.6 × 5.9 cm (3 3/8 × 2 5/16 in), irregular.
Plate: 9 × 6.2 cm (3 9/16 × 2 7/16 in). 50
5.1 S. W. Fores, ‘Coblers of Fashion or Modish Pastime for 1813’, satirical etching
from a folio of caricatures, London, 1813, 25.1 × 42.5 cm. 54
5.2 Women’s blue kid leather slip-o n shoes, c. 1810. 55
5.3 Shoe last marked ‘George’, early nineteenth century. 56
5.4 Amateur shoemaking toolbox, early nineteenth century. 58
6.1 Advertisement for Kaywoodie Pipes, P layboy , 1960. 67
7.1 Norman Hartnell, original pencil and watercolour sketched design for an
evening gown with swatches of fabric pinned to the corner, c. 1938. 76
7.2 Norman Hartnell’s furniture and decorative objects on display in the drawing
room at the archive house, the former home of Hartnell’s business manager
George Mitchison. 79
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