Luxury in the Eighteenth Century: Debates, Desires and Delectable Goods

270 Pages·2003·2.561 MB·English

by  Maxine Berg, Elizabeth Eger (eds.)

Luxury in the Eighteenth
Century
Debates, Desires and Delectable Goods
Edited by
Maxine Berg and Elizabeth Eger
Luxury in the Eighteenth Century
Frontispiece, Bernard Mandeville, The Fable of the Bees: or, Private Vices, Publick Benefits, first
edition, 1714 (courtesy of the British Library, London).
Luxury in the Eighteenth
Century
Debates, Desires and Delectable Goods
Edited by
Maxine Berg
Professor of History and Director of the Warwick Eighteenth Century Centre
University of Warwick
and
Elizabeth Eger
Research Fellow
Department of English
University of Liverpool
Editorial Matter and Selection © Maxine Berg and Elizabeth Eger.Chapters 1–16
© Palgrave Macmillan Ltd 2003
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2003 ISBN 978-0-333-96382-1
All rights reserved.No reproduction,copy or transmission of this publication may be
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First published 2003 by
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Luxury in the eighteenth century :debates,desires and delectable goods / edited by
Maxine Berg and Elizabeth Eger.
p.cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Luxury – History – 18th century. 2. Wealth – History – 18th century.
3. Economic history – 1600–1750. 4. Economic history – 1750–1918. I. Berg,
Maxine,1950– II. Eger,Elizabeth.
HC52.5 .L89 2002
306.3–dc21 2002075805
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
12 11 10 09 08 07 06 05 04 03
Contents
List of Plates vii
List of Contributors x
Acknowledgements xii
Introduction 1
Maxine Berg and Elizabeth Eger
Part I Debates
1 The Rise and Fall of the Luxury Debates 7
Maxine Berg and Elizabeth Eger
2 Mandeville, Rousseau and the Political Economy of Fantasy 28
Edward Hundert
3 Luxury in the Dutch Golden Age in Theory and Practice 41
Jan de Vries
4 Aestheticising the Critique of Luxury: Smollett’s Humphry Clinker 57
Michael McKeon
Part II Delectable Goods
5 Furnishing Discourses: Readings of a Writing Desk in Eighteenth-
Century France 71
Dena Goodman
6 The Circulation of Luxury Goods in Eighteenth-Century Paris: Social
Redistribution and an Alternative Currency 89
Laurence Fontaine
7 Custom or Consumption? Plebeian Fashion in Eighteenth-Century
England 103
John Styles
Part III Beauty, Taste and Sensibility
8 From the Moral Mound to the Material Maze: Hogarth’s Analysis of
Beauty 119
Annie Richardson
9 From Luxury to Comfort and Back Again: Landscape Architecture and
the Cottage in Britain and America 135
John Crowley
v
vi Contents
10 Vase Mania 151
Jenny Uglow
Part IV The Female Vice? Women and Luxury
11 Performing Roxane: The Oriental Woman as the Sign of Luxury in
Eighteenth-Century Fictions 165
Ros Ballaster
12 Luxury, Satire and Prostitute Narratives 178
Vivien Jones
13 Luxury, Industry and Charity: Bluestocking Culture Displayed 190
Elizabeth Eger
Part V Luxury and the Exotic
14 Luxuries or Not? Consumption of Silk and Porcelain in
Eighteenth-Century China 207
Shelagh Vainker
15 Luxury, Clothing and Race in Colonial Spanish America 219
Rebecca Earle
16 Asian Luxuries and the Making of the European Consumer
Revolution 228
Maxine Berg
Index 245
List of Plates
1a. Jan Jansz. Van de Velde, ‘Still-Life with a Pipe-Lighter’, 1653. Ashmolean
Museum, Oxford.
1b. Jan Davidsz. De Heem, ‘Still-Life of a Banquet Side-table’ (‘Pronk stilleven met
ham’), 1646. Gift of Edward Drummond Libbey (1955.33), Toledo (Ohio)
Museum of Art.
2a. Jacob Backer, ‘Regentessen van het Burgerweeshuis’, 1633/34. Amsterdam
Historisch Museum.
2b. Adriaen Backer, ‘Regentessen van het Burgerweeshuis’, 1683. Amsterdam
Historisch Museum.
3. Pieter de Hooch, ‘Two Women at a Linen Chest with a Child’, 1663.
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam.
4. ‘Matthew Bramble Recognises Some Ancient Friends’, from Tobias Smollett,
The Expedition of Humphry Clinker, 1793. Bodleian Library, University of
Oxford, engraving opposite page 61, Vet A5 e.4243.
5. Bonheur-du-jour, open, with marquetry ‘à decor de nature morte et frises d’en-
trelacs’, attributed to Topino, Louis XV period. Musée Cognacq-Jay, Paris,
museum no. J0380; ©Photothèque des Musées de la Ville de Paris/Pierrain.
6. The same bonheur-du-jour, closed, with marquetry showing writing instru-
ments. Musée Cognacq-Jay, Paris, museum no. J0380; ©Photothèque des
Musées de la Ville de Paris/Lifermann.
7. One of a pair of oval bonheur-du-jours, with marquetry of teapots and ware
in the Chinese style, stamped Topino, c. 1775. Sotheby’s.
8. ‘Lady’s bonheur-de-jour writing table, 1765 (tulipwood veneer on oak
mounted with Sèvres porcelain plaques and gilt bronze) by Martin Carlin (c.
1739–85). The Bowes Museum, Barnard Castle, Co. Durham/Bridgeman Art
Library.
9. ‘The Modiste’ (La Marchande de Modes: Le Matin), ascribed to François
Boucher. Reproduced by permission of the Trustees of the Wallace Collec-
tion, London.
10. George Stubbs, ‘The Haymakers’, 1785. ©Tate Gallery, London 2001
(TO2256).
11. H. Walton, ‘Woman Plucking a Turkey’, 1770s. ©Tate, London 2001.
12. ‘The Third State’, plate 1 of William Hogarth, The Analysis of Beauty, March
1753. ©The British Museum, London.
13. ‘The First State’, plate 2 of William Hogarth, The Analysis of Beauty, March
1753. ©The British Museum, London.
14. John Plaw, ‘Plan, Elevation and Sections of a Hermitage’, from Rural Archi-
tecture; or Designs, from the Simple Cottage to the Decorated Villa..., London,
1796. Courtesy, The Winterthur Library: Printed Book and Periodical
Collection.
vii
viii List of Plates
15. John Wood, ‘Cottages with Two Rooms’, from A Series of Plans for Cottages
or Habitations of the Labourer..., London, 1806. Courtesy, The Winterthur
Library: Printed Book and Periodical Collection.
16. James Malton, ‘Design 7’, from An Essay on British Cottage Architecture,
London, 1798. Courtesy, The Winterthur Library: Printed Book and Periodi-
cal Collection.
17. Andrew Jackson Downing, ‘Design IX: Regular Bracketed Cottage’, from
Architecture of Country Houses, New York, 1852. Courtesy, The Winterthur
Library: Printed Book and Periodical Collection.
18a. Wedgwood ‘First Day Vase’, 1769, front showing figures. Image courtesy of
the Wedgwood Museum Trust Limited, Barlaston, Staffordshire.
18b. Reverse showing inscription. Image courtesy of the Wedgwood Museum
Trust Limited, Barlaston, Staffordshire.
19. Boulton and Fothergill, Pattern Book I, p. 129, Designs for Tea Urns.
Birmingham City Archives (ref: B&W/vol169/129).
20. Pair of Ewers, Boulton and Fothergill, Soho Factory, ormolu and Blue-John,
c. 1772. Birmingham Museums & Art Gallery (museum no. 1946 M & 71).
21. Wedgwood vase with relief of ‘The Apotheosis of Homer’, designed by John
Flaxman, blue jasper, 1786, front. ©The British Museum, London.
22. Benjamin West, preparatory design for a ceiling painting intended for the
Queen’s Lodge at Windsor, known as ‘British Manufactory Giving Support
to Industry’, 1791. Cleveland Museum of Art (museum no. CMA 1919.108).
23. ‘The Famous Roxana’, frontispiece from Daniel Defoe, Roxana: or, The For-
tunate Mistress, 1742 edition. Bodleian Library, University of Oxford, fron-
tispiece from Vet A4 f.16.
24. ‘Roxolana’, from Richard Knolles, Generall Historie of the Turkes, 1603.
Bodleian Library, University of Oxford, p. 759, from Vet A2 c.1.
25. Portrait of Lady Mary Wortley Montagu in Turkish dress, attributed to Jean
Baptiste Vanmour. Courtesy of the National Portrait Gallery, London.
26. ‘An Evening View on Ludgate Hill’, satirical print, 1749. Courtesy of the
Guildhall Library, Corporation of London.
27. ‘Exterior of Montagu House’, watercolour. Courtesy of the Guildhall Library,
Corporation of London.
28. Joseph Bonomi, ‘Mrs Montagu’s Great Room, Montagu House’. RIBA Library
Photographs Collection.
29. Joseph Bonomi, ‘Design for the Great Drawing Room, Montagu House, for
Mrs Montagu’. RIBA Library Photographs Collection.
30. Joseph Bonomi, ‘Design for a Lampstand for the Staircase, Montagu House’.
RIBA Library Photographs Collection.
31. Joseph Bonomi, ‘Design for a Carpet’. RIBA Library Photographs Collection.
32. Ewer with the arms of Peers, porcelain with overglaze enamel decoration and
gilding, China, c. 1730, height 20.5cm. Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, EA
1978.130 Given by his family in memory of Alderman C.J. Peers.
33. Porcelain dish with underglaze blue and overglaze enamel decoration,
depicting characters from the novel Shuihu zhuan(The Water Margin). China,
List of Plates ix
c. 1700, diameter 20cm. Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, EA X.3532 Mallett
Bequest.
34. Chair cover, silk and gold thread kesi tapestry weave, China, eighteenth
century, 171.5 ¥52cm. Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, EA 1965.105 Given in
memory of A.W. Bahr.
35. Silk panel, probably from a screen, depicting peach, bamboo, narcissus and
fungus embroidered in satin stitch, China, eighteenth century, 126 ¥46cm.
Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, EA 1965.78 Given in memory of A.W. Bahr.
36. Cope, made up from sections of Chinese embroidered silk satin, late
eighteenth–early nineteenth century. L. 149.5cm, W. 304cm. By kind per-
mission of the Dean and Canons of Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford.
37. Casta painting, Vicente Albán, ‘Distinguished Lady with her Black Slave’
(‘Señora principal con su negra esclava’), Quito School, 1783. Museo de
América, Madrid.
38. Skirt and frock of cotton, hand painted in India, made up in
Europe. Bodleian Library, University of Oxford, Bodley 170083.A1. Copy-
right courtesy of Arnold Publishers.
39. Chintz overdress, painted and dyed cotton. Bodleian Libary, University of
Oxford, Bodley 17512.C.43. Copyright courtesy of the Royal Ontario
Museum, Toronto, museum no. 967.176.1.
40. Chinese octagonal plate, c. 1736, with European Delft tile, used as a pattern,
c. 1745, diameter of plate 22.8cm. Sotheby’s.
41. Saucer and cup with handle (‘Handle Chocolatettes’), c. 1720, diameter of
saucer 14.6cm. Sotheby’s.