Shortlisted for the History Book Award in Scotland's National Book Awards, 2023
During the long 19th century, Scotland was home to an established body of skilled jewellers who were able to access a range of materials from the country's varied natural landscape: precious gold and silver; sparkling crystals and colourful stones; freshwater pearls, shells and parts of rare animals.
Following these materials on their journey from hill and shore, across the jeweller's bench and on to the bodies of wearers, this book challenges the persistent notion that the forces of industrialisation led to the decline of craft. It instead reveals a vivid picture of skilled producers who were driving new and revived areas of hand skill, and who were key to fostering a focused cultural engagement with the natural world - among both producers and consumers - through the things they made. By placing producers
and their skill in cultural context, it provides new and multifaceted insights into the wider transformations that marked British history during the long 19th century.
Uniting an array of jewellery objects with a range of other sources - including paintings, newspaper reports, inventories of big houses and small workshops, works of literary geology and early travel writings - it sets out innovative methodologies for writing about the histories of craft production, the natural environment and the material world. Now available in a paperback edition, it will be an important addition to the bookshelf of cultural historians and those interested in Scotland's wild landscapes and natural objects.
Rezensionen / Stimmen
This book is a highly original account full of new information from contemporary letters, newspapers, novels, and paintings. It is essential for anyone interested in jewellery and wearable ornaments or in Scotland's cultural history ... This compellingly written and well-illustrated book is one you will return to repeatedly and is unquestionably worth the outlay. * The Decorative Arts Society Newsletter * This extensively researched and beautifully illustrated book makes an important contribution to material culture studies. It puts the jewellery makers and their materials at the centre of the discussion, around which flow the currents of cultural, intellectual, aesthetic and economic aspects of their craft. The result is a brilliantly effective interdisciplinary account of making and meaning in Scottish jewellery practice in the long 19th century. * Dr. Simon Bliss, author of Jewellery in the Age of Modernism 1918-1940 (2021) * This is a wonderful book which will become the standard work on Scotland's jewellery craft for many years to come. Thorough and meticulous research is blended with eloquent prose and an array of splendid images to enchanting effect. * Professor Emeritus Sir Tom Devine, University of Edinburgh, UK * From Cairngorm pebbles and Perthshire pearls to Edinburgh goldsmiths and the craftswomen of Inverness, Laurenson shows us the places and people of Scotland in vivid and innovative ways that will inspire all readers to see the past afresh. * David Gange, author of The Frayed Atlantic Edge (2021), joint winner of the Highland Book Prize, and Associate Professor of History, the University of Birmingham, UK * Essential reading for all who seek to understand the role of jewellery, and why it matters, in a period of huge social change. Bristling with new research, this engaging and highly original account takes cultural history deep into Scotland and far beyond. * Judy Rudoe, Curator, 1800 to the present, British Museum, UK *
Reihe
Sprache
Verlagsort
Verlagsgruppe
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Zielgruppe
Für höhere Schule und Studium
Produkt-Hinweis
Broschur/Paperback
Klebebindung
Illustrationen
48 colour and 20 bw illus
Maße
Höhe: 234 mm
Breite: 156 mm
Dicke: 25 mm
Gewicht
ISBN-13
978-1-350-46992-1 (9781350469921)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Klassifikation
Sarah Laurenson is Principal Curator of Modern and Contemporary History at National Museums Scotland, UK. She is responsible for the Scottish collections representing cultural, social, political, military and domestic history from c.1750 to the present. Her research focuses on the relationship between material culture, landscape and nature from the late eighteenth century to the present day.
Autor*in
National Museums Scotland, UK
Introduction: Revealing Craft: Fusing Nature and Culture
Chapter 1: Making Things: In the Jewellery Workshop
Chapter 2: New-Old Objects: Deconstructing and Reconstructing the Past
Chapter 3: Metals: Landscape and Memory in Gold and Silver
Chapter 4: Minerals: Crafting Colour Worlds in Stone
Chapter 5: (Un)Living Things: Material Afterlives in Pearls, Shells and Taxidermy
Bibliography
Index
