"I am now determined to inform you what i am sure will amaze you": Objects, domestic space, and the economics of gentility

TY - CHAP

T1 - "I am now determined to inform you what i am sure will amaze you"

T2 - Objects, domestic space, and the economics of gentility

AU - Hague, Stephen G.

N1 - Publisher Copyright: © 2022 Taylor & Francis. All rights reserved.

PY - 2021/9/17

Y1 - 2021/9/17

N2 - This exploration of value in eighteenth-century domestic space begins with a 1739 letter recounting the death of Bristol Customs official John Elbridge, the distribution of bequests from his estate, and the resulting Chancery Court case from the 1740s. Analyzing the relationships between John Elbridge, his niece Rebecca and nephew Thomas, his apprentice Henry Bodman, and a host of cherished and utilitarian objects, the chapter reveals the domestic setting as an important site for their familial, professional, and social interactions. It weaves together the material world, social identity, masculinity, and homosocial relations to illuminate how men and women assessed value and constructed identity through objects, space, and actions. This episode is situated in a broader consideration of what I refer to as the "economics of gentility," where the cultural and economic value of material goods imbued them with symbolic and monetary importance and precisely defined social status.

AB - This exploration of value in eighteenth-century domestic space begins with a 1739 letter recounting the death of Bristol Customs official John Elbridge, the distribution of bequests from his estate, and the resulting Chancery Court case from the 1740s. Analyzing the relationships between John Elbridge, his niece Rebecca and nephew Thomas, his apprentice Henry Bodman, and a host of cherished and utilitarian objects, the chapter reveals the domestic setting as an important site for their familial, professional, and social interactions. It weaves together the material world, social identity, masculinity, and homosocial relations to illuminate how men and women assessed value and constructed identity through objects, space, and actions. This episode is situated in a broader consideration of what I refer to as the "economics of gentility," where the cultural and economic value of material goods imbued them with symbolic and monetary importance and precisely defined social status.

UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/85118085862

UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/85118085862#tab=citedBy

U2 - 10.4324/9780429297267-5

DO - 10.4324/9780429297267-5

M3 - Chapter

SN - 9780367276799

SP - 107

EP - 125

BT - At Home in the Eighteenth Century

PB - Taylor and Francis

ER -