A Taste for Luxury in Early Modern Europe: Display, Acquisition and Boundaries

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Jon Stobart and Johanna Ilmakunnas bring together a range of scholars from across mainland Europe and the UK to examine luxury and taste in early modern Europe. In the 18th century, debates raged about the economic, social and moral impacts of luxury, whilst taste was viewed as a refining influence and a marker of rank and status. This book takes a fresh, comparative approach to these ideas, drawing together new scholarship to examine three related areas in a wide variety of European contexts. Firstly, the deployment of luxury goods in displays of status and how these practices varied across space and time. Secondly, the processes of communicating and acquiring taste and luxury: how did people obtain tasteful and luxurious goods, and how did they recognise them as such Thirdly, the ways in which ideas of taste and luxury crossed national, political and economic boundaries: what happened to established ideas of luxury and taste as goods moved from one country to another, and during times of political transformation Through the analysis of case studies looking at consumption practices, material culture, political economy and retail marketing, A Taste for Luxury in Early Modern Europe challenges established readings of luxury and taste. This is a crucial volume for any historian seeking a more nuanced understanding of material culture, consumption and luxury in early modern Europe.

Reviews

The contributions in this book are well connected and constitute an important step forward in providing new perspectives on a topic which has been the subject of much scholarly work. * European History Quarterly *
At last a volume that lives up to its promises. Fourteen authors drawn from across Europe, including leading scholars and new researchers, focus on the complexities of capturing the meaning and impact of luxury and taste in the early modern world. This publication significantly moves the debates forward, engaging with objects and ideas, new perspectives and sources, while consolidating the now vast literature on the subject. * Helen Clifford, Curator, Swaledale Museum, UK *

Author Bio

Johanna Ilmakunnas is acting Professor of Finnish History at the University of Turku, Finland. She has published widely on eighteenth-century cultural and social history. Her most recent publications include Early Professional Women in Northern Europe, c. 16501860 (2017, co-edited with Marjatta Rahikainen and Kirsi Vainio-Korhonen). Jon Stobart is Professor of Social History at Manchester Metropolitan University, UK. His most recent publications are Consumption and the Country House: Elite Spending and Identities in Georgian England (2016, co-authored with Mark Rothery) and The Country House: Material Culture and Consumption (2015, co-edited with Andrew Hann). He is also Founding Editor of the new journal, History of Retailing and Consumption.