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Furnishing the Eighteenth Century

What Furniture Can Tell Us About the European and American Past

Edited by Dena Goodman, Kathryn Norberg

Published December 13th 2006 by Routledge – 272 pages

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Description

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.

Contents

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements

Introduction

Dena Goodman and Kathryn Norberg

Part 1: Mapping Meaning Globally

1. Orientalism, Colonialism, and Furniture in Eighteenth-Century France

Madeleine Dobie, Columbia University

2. Luxury Markets in Saint Domingue: Mahogany as a Case Study

Chaela Pastore, California State University, San Marcos

3. "A Wanton Chase in a Foreign Place": Hogarth and the Gendering of Exoticism in the Eighteenth-Century Interior

David Porter, University of Michigan

Part 2: Diffusion

4. Fashion, Business, Diffusion: An Upholsterer’s Shop in Eighteenth-Century Paris

Translated by Kathryn Norberg & Dena Goodman

Natacha Coquery, Université de Tours

5. Sideboards, Side Chairs, and Globes: Changing Modes of Furnishing Provincial Culture in the Early Republic, 1790-1820

David Jaffee, University of North Florida

Part 3: Social Meaning and Social Power

6. Color Schemes and Decorative Tastes in the Noble Houses of Seventeenth-Century Dauphiné

Donna Bohanon, Auburn University

7. Tea Tables Overturned: Rituals of Power and Place in Colonial America

Ann Smart Martin, University of Wisconsin-Madison

8. Goddess of Taste: Courtesans and their Furniture in the Late Eighteenth Century

Kathryn Norberg

9. Decoration and Enlightened Spectatorship

Mary Salzman, Stanford University

Part 4: Hidden Meanings: Psychology and Security

10. The Joy of Sets: The Uses of Seriality in the French Interior

Mimi Hellman, Skidmore College

11. The Secretaire and the Integration of the Eighteenth-Century Self

Dena Goodman

12. Looking at Furniture Inside Out: Strategies for Concealment and Secrecy in Eighteenth-Century French Furniture

Carolyn Sargentson, Victoria and Albert Museum

Notes on Contributors

Index

Author Bio

Dena Goodman is Professor of History at the University of Michigan. Kathryn Norberg is Associate Professor of History at the University of California, Los Angeles and editor of Signs.

Name: Furnishing the Eighteenth Century: What Furniture Can Tell Us About the European and American Past (Hardback) – Routledge 
Description: Edited by Dena Goodman, 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...
Categories: Social & Cultural History, World/International History, Modern History 1750-1945, Art & Visual Culture