Furnishing the Eighteenth Century

Dena Goodman is Professor of History and Women’s Studies at the University of Michigan. She is the author of The Republic of Letters: A Cultural History of the French Enlightenment and Becoming a Woman in the Age of Letters, and the editor of Marie-Antoinette: Writings on the Body of a Queen (Routledge). Kathryn Norberg teaches history at the University of California, Los Angeles. She is the author of Rich and Poor in Grenoble and the coeditor (with Sara Melzer) of From the Royal to the Republican Body: Incorporating the Political in Seventeenth- and Eighteenth-Century France.

"The twelve essays that constitute this collection provide ample new, thoughtful, and frequently surprising revelations about what eighteenth-century furniture said to a broad range of makers, users, and audiences...."--Enfilade, newsletter for Historians of Eighteenth-Century Art and Architecture"There have been few attempts to make the history of furniture above all a form of cultural and social history....all of these essays add to our stock of knowledge about furniture's importance."--H-France review"The book would make a really interesting addition to any design-related library, especially for a reader who appreciates in-depth essyas."--Style Court blog

• Table of Contents AcknowledgementsIntroductionDena Goodman and Kathryn NorbergPart 1: Mapping Meaning Globally1. Orientalism, Colonialism, and Furniture in Eighteenth-Century FranceMadeleine Dobie, Columbia University2. Luxury Markets in Saint Domingue: Mahogany as a Case StudyChaela Pastore, California State University, San Marcos3. "A Wanton Chase in a Foreign Place": Hogarth and the Gendering of Exoticism in the Eighteenth-Century InteriorDavid Porter, University of MichiganPart 2: Diffusion4. Fashion, Business, Diffusion: An Upholsterer’s Shop in Eighteenth-Century Paris Translated by Kathryn Norberg & Dena Goodman Natacha Coquery, Université de Tours5. Sideboards, Side Chairs, and Globes: Changing Modes of Furnishing Provincial Culture in the Early Republic, 1790-1820David Jaffee, University of North FloridaPart 3: Social Meaning and Social Power6. Color Schemes and Decorative Tastes in the Noble Houses of Seventeenth-Century DauphinéDonna Bohanon, Auburn University7. Tea Tables Overturned: Rituals of Power and Place in Colonial AmericaAnn Smart Martin, University of Wisconsin-Madison8. Goddess of Taste: Courtesans and their Furniture in the Late Eighteenth CenturyKathryn Norberg9. Decoration and Enlightened SpectatorshipMary Salzman, Stanford UniversityPart 4: Hidden Meanings: Psychology and Security10. The Joy of Sets: The Uses of Seriality in the French InteriorMimi Hellman, Skidmore College11. The Secretaire and the Integration of the Eighteenth-Century SelfDena Goodman12. Looking at Furniture Inside Out: Strategies for Concealment and Secrecy in Eighteenth-Century French FurnitureCarolyn Sargentson, Victoria and Albert MuseumNotes on ContributorsIndex