Material lives : women makers and consumer culture in the 18th century / Serena Dyer.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Dyer, Serena, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Material culture--England--History--18th century.

Material culture.

Women--England--Archives.

Women.

Women--England--Biography.

Women--England--Social conditions--18th century.

Physical Description:

1 online resource.

Edition:

First edition.

Distribution:

[London, England] : Bloomsbury Publishing, 2020

Place of Publication:

London ; Bloomsbury Visual Arts, 2020.

Summary:

"Conventional histories of the 18th century - and the industrial revolution and the birth of the consumer society - have distorted our understanding of the complex dynamics of material production and consumption and the ways in which these were experienced by both men and women. With its illuminating stories of women's experiences, and their material literacy and agency as producers, Material Lives offers a new way of looking at this period, challenging previously held views and assumptions. Using deep archival research to tell these stories, Material Lives shifts the conceptual framework by which women are perceived as passive consumers - those who bought things - to active producers - those who made things. Dyer focusses on genteel women, whose engagement with production has traditionally been characterised as decorative, trivial and superficial, and reveals the strategies used by women to negotiate and record their interactions with the increasingly sophisticated world of goods. Exploring the material archives of four women of the period - fabric samples, 'dress of the year' watercolours, doll-sized versions of women's garments and adorned prints - as forms of lifewriting, or material biographies, the book reveals how women used the material culture of making to record and navigate their lives. In so doing, Material Lives challenges our previously held understanding of 18th-century society and the history of gender, making and consumption, placing women centrally as 'makers' in this new consumer society. For researchers and students of material culture, dress history, consumption, gender and women's history, it offers a rich resource of stories to illuminate the past"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

List of Illustrations

List of Charts and Tables

Acknowledgements

List of Abbreviations

1. Introduction: Making Material Lives Material Life Writing The Consumer Culture of Making Four Material Lives

2. Material Accounting: A Sartorial Account Book Barbara Johnson (1738?1825) Educating Barbara Johnson Accounting for Herself Material Literacy A Chronicle of Fashion

3. Dress of the Year: Watercolours Ann Frankland Lewis (1757?1842) Sartorial Timekeeping and the Fashion Plate Accomplishment and Creative Practice Society and Fashionable Display Selfhood, Emotion and the Mourning Watercolours

4. Adorned in Silk: Dressed Prints Sabine Winn (1734?1798) Paper Textiles, Dress and the Dressed Print Sabine Winn's Dressed Prints Print and Making at Nostell

5. Fashions in Miniature: Dolls Laetitia Powell (1741?1801) The Powell Dolls Mimetic Dolls and Miniature Selves Dolls as Sartorial Social Narrators

6. Conclusion: Material Afterlives

Glossary

Bibliography

Index.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on print version record and CIP data provided by publisher; resource not viewed.

ISBN:

9781350127029

1350127027

9781350127005

1350127000

9781350126985

1350126985

OCLC:

1158506492