Furnishing the Eighteenth Century: What Furniture Can Tell Us About the European and American Past

by Dena Goodman (Editor), Kathryn Norberg

Furnishing the Eighteenth Century provides an illuminating, interdisciplinary look into European and American furniture during the century that connoisseurs and collectors consider its golden age. Lavishly illustrated, this eclectic and lively collection of essays by historians, art historians, and literary scholars examines the many ways furniture of this period reflects the complex social and cultural issues that shaped this century in both Europe and America. In addition to furniture and portraiture, this diverse compilation considers literature, account books, and handbooks, allowing for a revealing look at how these furnishings created, contested, and subverted their cultures on both sides of the Atlantic. Ultimately, these essays make the past come alive, showing us what made this furniture meaningful in its own time, and why it is still meaningful today.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, 18th Century, Art History

260 pages, Hardcover

First published December 13, 2006

Reviews

[Maja Solar · Rating 4 out of 5]

„In the eighteenth century the incentive to overlook the colonial conditions of production was particularly strong, as it meant turning a blind eye to slavery along with other vicissitudes of plantation agriculture, notably lasting ecological evils such as soil erosion, drought, and flooding.A reflection on the history of luxury furniture at first glance has little to do with this kind of ecological reality, and indeed, with the social and economic concerns of people beyond the (literally gilded) elite world of which it is considered a vestige. However, practices of consumption and aesthetic appreciation represent only a single stage in a cycle of production and consumption that begins with the harvesting of raw materials and involves a broad cross-section of the working population including, in this case, members of the enslaved population of the Caribbean colonies.“ Madeleine Dobie, Orientalism, Colonialism, and Furniture in Eighteenth-Century France

[dejah_thoris · Rating 4 out of 5]

So, I was a little skeptical when I got this book because it's a grouping of essays born out of a conference and like most journal articles, it looks like it could be dull. Thankfully, it's not! Lots of pictures of the furniture referred to in each article makes things easy to visualize and seeing furniture as part of material and social culture instead of just a chronology of the decorative arts is very interesting. I especially enjoyed Norberg's piece on courtesans and their impact on the luxury furniture market but I would also recommend Goodman's piece on the secretaire for epistolary enthusiasts.