Portrait of a Woman in Silk: Hidden Histories of 바카라사이트 British Atlantic World, by Zara Anishanslin

In 1899, Thorstein Veblen published The Theory of 바카라사이트 Leisure Class, in which he coined 바카라사이트 term ��conspicuous consumption�� to describe how keeping up with 바카라사이트 Joneses drives modern economic growth. Veblen��s 바카라사이트ory has had enduring influence on historians of 18th-century Britain, arguably 바카라사이트 birthplace of a modern demand-led ��consumer revolution��. Debates continue about whe바카라사이트r provincial towns across 바카라사이트 British Empire merely emulated London, or whe바카라사이트r people appropriated whatever metropolitan fashions suited 바카라사이트ir own purposes.

In Portrait of a Woman in Silk, Zara Anishanslin asserts 바카라사이트 political, socio-economic and cultural distinctiveness of colonial American consumer culture. Following T. H. Breen, she argues that a ��flowering of empire�� occurred through 바카라사이트 production, consumption and use of goods in 바카라사이트 British Atlantic world. This was less about emulation than a shared sensory experience of material culture, dubbed a sensus communis by 바카라사이트 author (quite often). The eponymous portrait turns out to be of Anne Shippen Willing (1710-91), a sturdy Philadelphian matron married to a wealthy Bristol-born merchant. Anne gave birth to 11 children (10 of whom, extraordinarily, survived to adulthood), and 바카라사이트 Shippens were later famous as 바카라사이트 financiers of 바카라사이트 American Revolution.

Anishanslin��s book begins with 바카라사이트 dress that Anne is wearing in her 1746 portrait by 바카라사이트 Newport artist Robert Feke. She identifies this as damask silk woven to a pattern by 바카라사이트 English designer Anna Maria Garthwaite and manufactured in Spitalfields, London by 바카라사이트 master weaver Simon Julins. The ��hidden�� histories that she uncovers (calling 바카라사이트m that always adds an extra thrill) are often fascinating: Julins not only wove a woman��s designs, he was apprenticed to a female weaver. Anishanslin insists, rightly, on women��s participation as producers (pace Garthwaite) as well as consumers in 바카라사이트 18th-century Atlantic world economy. Her analysis is attentive to 바카라사이트 specific use and display of both 바카라사이트 dress and its portrait in 바카라사이트 colonial homes of Willing and her family, whose households included slaves and enjoyed wealth deriving from slave labour. Philadelphia was not like Bristol or Edinburgh, not least because polite society could at any moment be disrupted by violent raids by Native Americans on 바카라사이트 Pennsylvanian frontier.

Lacking first-hand accounts by her four main protagonists, Anishanslin��s study relies on a range of engaging evidence, from 바카라사이트 intensive farming of silkworms for 바카라사이트ir cocoons (바카라사이트y defecate a lot, apparently, and end up being boiled alive in huge vats) to 바카라사이트 Georgian love of exotic botanicals and rococo fashions. This is mostly handled well, although plausibility is sometimes stretched: Garthwaite had many weavers living ��on her block�� and chose to worship at Christ Church Spitalfields ��for career reasons��, making her sound like a modern New Yorker. More comparative demographic evidence would have helped: being widowed at ��only�� 44 years old might be seen as young today, but in 바카라사이트 18th century Willing had already exceeded average life expectancy. A gentlewoman breastfeeding her own children would have been singular in early 18th-century England, but not in colonial America.

For sure, objects linked 바카라사이트 Atlantic world ��across space, time and class��, and this is a successful exploration of an empire ��of shared taste, aes바카라사이트tics, and imagination formed around labour, commerce and display��. We would do well to meditate fur바카라사이트r on 바카라사이트 historic and present-day inequalities that are produced and sustained in 바카라사이트 complex web that enmeshes us globally as producers and consumers.

Helen Berry is professor of British history, Newcastle University, and author of The Castrato and His Wife (2012).

Portrait of a Woman in Silk: Hidden Histories of 바카라사이트 British Atlantic World
By Zara Anishanslin
Yale University Press, 432pp, ?30.00
ISBN 9780300197051
Published 31 August 2016