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Auctions and the Consumption of Second-Hand Goods in Georgian England

(Hardback)


Publishing Details

Full Title:

Auctions and the Consumption of Second-Hand Goods in Georgian England

Contributors:

By (Author) Sara Pennell
By (author) Jon Stobart

ISBN:

9781350549098

Publisher:

Bloomsbury Publishing PLC

Imprint:

Bloomsbury Academic

Publication Date:

22nd January 2026

Country:

United Kingdom

Classifications

Readership:

Professional and Scholarly

Fiction/Non-fiction:

Non Fiction

Main Subject:
Other Subjects:

Material culture
Social and cultural history

Physical Properties

Physical Format:

Hardback

Number of Pages:

304

Dimensions:

Width 156mm, Height 234mm

Description

This book provides the first comprehensive examination of household auctions as the key mechanism for recirculating household goods through the 18th and early 19th century. In focusing on household auctions, Sara Pennell and Jon Stobart contextualise and historicise the importance of used goods to consumer choices, experiences and identities. They tell the stories of the people and things, as well as the broader processes, practices and attitudes that were bound up in the commercial recirculation of used goods through auctions.

Auctions and the Consumption of Used Goods in Georgian England rebalances the historiography of second-hand consumption currently dominated by used clothing on the one hand, and the sale of books, art and antiques on the other and brings second-hand into the mainstream of household consumption. It also explodes the twin myths that second-hand was the last resort of the poor and that it declined rapidly as Britain industrialised and the supply of new consumer goods increased; in reality, household auctions remained vibrant and important mechanisms of supply. Finally, the book demonstrates that consumer motivations were far more complex than simple financial necessity; the reasons for buying second-hand varied between households and according to the type of goods being bought thrift, utility and the construction of identity all played a part. Household auctions did not fade to the margins; they remained an important part of how households acquired a wide variety of goods and fulfilled a variety of consumer needs.

Author Bio

Sara Pennell is Associate Professor in Early Modern History at the University of Greenwich, UK. She is the co-editor, along with Michelle DiMeo, of Reading and Writing Recipe Books, 1550-1800 (2013).

Jon Stobart, FRHS, is Professor of History at Manchester Metropolitan University, UK, and the editor of The Comforts of Home in Western Europe, 1700-1900 (Bloomsbury, 2020), A Taste for Luxury (Bloomsbury, 2017) with Johanna Ilmakunnas, General Editor of A Cultural History of Shopping, 6 volumes (Bloomsbury, 2022), and co-editor, with Christopher J. Berry, of A Cultural History of Luxury in the Age of Enlightenment (Bloomsbury, forthcoming). He is also editor of Global Goods and the Country House (2023), author of Comfort and the Eighteenth-Century Country House (2022) and co-author of Consumption and the Country House (2016).

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