In sparkling company : reflections on glass in the 18th-century British world /
Christopher L. Maxwell
Bok · Engelsk · 2020
| Omfang | 304 sider : illustrasjoner i farger
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| Opplysninger | "The British elite of the 18th century lived amid a flowering of material culture. Increasing urbanization, overseas trade, and technological advancements brought an abundance of new materials, forms, and functions into the service of an increasingly sophisticated sociability. Glass is rarely considered beyond its more functional capacity as a material favored for drinking vessels. Yet, in a period frequently associated with the progress of politeness as a social ideal, the "polished" surface was the "polite" surface, and glass was a paradigm of this culture. Highly refractive lead glass (an innovation of the British) glinted like silverware on the ever more elaborate dining tables of the elite; innovative cut glass sparkled from chandeliers and lustres like newly fashionable diamonds; "paste" gems were used on jewelry, buckles, and buttons to showcase complex types of facet cutting impossible on hardstones; glass paillettes glimmered next to silver and gold brocade on rich court dr ess; and large polished looking glasses reflected the carefully orchestrated sociability of the age. Sash windows glazed with expensive crown glass brought daylight into fashionable interiors that were furnished with a multitude of other polished and reflective surfaces, such as mahogany, gilded wood, bronze, lacquer, glazed porcelain, and shining silks. A French traveler to England in 1784 remarked that English dining tables "are made of the most beautiful wood and always have a brilliant polish like that of the finest glass." The Glass Drawing Room at Northumberland House, designed by Robert Adam for the glamorous 1st Duke and Duchess of Northumberland and completed about 1775, was entirely clad in spangled glass panels and expensive looking glasses. In keeping with Enlightenment ideals, lenses, telescopes, microscopes, and vacuum pumps also found their way into the drawing rooms and libraries of the wealthy. This book reflects current scholarship in social history and material cultu re, and unites specialist authors from diverse fields, including costume, portraiture, literature, science, and slavery. Their collection of eight essays will provide an unprecedented and diverse perspective on the place of glass in 18th-century Britain. The publication coincides with the exhibition "In Sparkling Company: Glass and Social Life in 18th-Century Britain," to be presented at The Corning Museum of Glass from May 2020 through January 2021"--
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| ISBN | 9780872902237
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