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Consumption and the country house, c.1730-1800

消费和乡村别墅，c.1730-1800

基本信息

批准号：
AH/H008365/1
负责人：
Jon Stobart
金额：
$ 20.4万
依托单位：
University of Northampton
依托单位国家：
英国
项目类别：
Research Grant
财政年份：
2010
资助国家：
英国
起止时间：
2010 至无数据
项目状态：
已结题

来源：
https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=AH%2FH008365%2F1
关键词：
Consumption country house c.1730 1800

项目摘要

This project provides an innovatory analysis of the consumption practices of the elite of 18th-century provincial England. A vast amount has been written about the country house and its owner. Much of it has focused either on consumption as part of wider estate finances (funded through marriage settlements, mortgages and credit, and analysed in terms of income and expenditure) or on luxury goods and the outcomes of consumption - goods as 'art' collections and the country house as the embodiment of social and cultural capital. Little attention has been paid to everyday goods (and their relationship to luxuries) or to the mundane processes of consumption and the systems of supply which met the needs and wants of the elite. Rather than offer another description of the material culture of the country house, this project engages with several wider debates. The first centres on changing cultures of consumption. Eschewing simple notions of conspicuous consumption or of the elite as connoisseurs, the project will establish how they fitted into wider patterns of consumer behaviour usually examined through the activities of the middling sorts. Second, by focusing on the systems of supply and the processes of acquiring goods, it stresses the everyday practicalities of consumption and the relationship between buyers and sellers, exploring the extent to which 'ordinary' tradesmen were seen as arbiters of taste. Third, it links to debates over the value systems which shaped consumption. At one level, the research explores the interaction between national and local identities: specifically the position of London in structuring and articulating consumption. At another it foregrounds neighbourly, familial and inter-generational relationships, and shows how a better understanding of the disposal as well as the accumulation of goods provides important insights into consumer motivations.These debates are explored through a comparative study of two Warwickshire houses and their owners: Stoneleigh Abbey owned by the Leighs and Alscot Park owned from 1749 by the Wests. By the mid 18th century, both families were very wealthy by county standards and enjoyed national connections as well as considerable local influence. They can be seen as typical of two strands of the provincial gentry: the Leighs were an old-established family, present in Warwickshire from the 16th century; John West came to the county having made his money from trade and politics in London - he was thus arriviste and strongly metropolitan. In their similarities and differences, they afford insights into wider practices and attitudes amongst the provincial elite and consumers in general.The significance of this research stretches far beyond a better knowledge of elite consumption. First, it will revise our understanding of the practices and motivations of consumers during a key period of transformation in domestic material culture and consumerism. In particular, it challenges established theorisations of consumption as primarily an expression of social status, stressing instead the heterogeneity of cultural capital, and the everyday, contingent and relational nature of consumer behaviour. Second, by exploring the ways in which people operated as part of a national and local elite, but also as family members and as individuals with their own tastes and value systems, the research questions the relationship between (social) structures and individual agency. Third, it throws new light on the nature and construction of provincial culture, building on a growing appreciation of the resilience of local identity through the 18th century to challenge the overweening importance accorded to national-metropolitan systems of taste. Beyond the realm of academia, the research will provide the wider public with a more nuanced understanding of the workings of the country house, and offer the heritage industry opportunities to present different narratives of the country house as a lived space.

该项目提供了一个创新的分析，18世纪英国地方精英的消费实践。关于这座乡间别墅及其主人的文章已经写了很多。其中很大一部分集中在作为更广泛的房地产金融的一部分的消费上（通过婚姻安排、抵押贷款和信贷提供资金，并从收入和支出方面进行分析），或者集中在奢侈品和消费的结果上-作为“艺术”收藏品的商品和作为社会和文化资本体现的乡村别墅。很少有人关注日常用品（以及它们与奢侈品的关系），也很少有人关注世俗的消费过程和满足精英阶层需求的供应体系。而不是提供另一种描述的物质文化的国家的房子，这个项目涉及几个更广泛的辩论。第一个挑战是消费文化的变化。该项目避开了炫耀性消费或精英鉴赏家的简单概念，将确定他们如何融入通常通过中产阶级活动进行研究的更广泛的消费行为模式。其次，通过关注供应系统和获取商品的过程，它强调了日常消费的实际性和买卖双方之间的关系，探索了“普通”商人被视为品味仲裁者的程度。第三，它与关于塑造消费的价值体系的争论有关。在一个层面上，研究探讨了国家和地方身份之间的相互作用：特别是伦敦在结构和表达消费的位置。另一方面，它突出了邻里，家庭和代际关系，并显示如何更好地理解的处置以及积累的货物提供了重要的见解到consumer motivation.These辩论是通过两个沃里克郡的房子和他们的业主：Stoneleigh修道院拥有的Leighs和Alscot公园拥有从1749年的西部的比较研究。到了世纪中期，这两个家族都非常富有，享有全国性的联系以及相当大的地方影响力。他们可以被看作是两种典型的地方士绅：利氏家族是一个历史悠久的家族，从世纪开始就存在于沃里克郡;约翰·韦斯特来到沃里克郡，是在伦敦从事贸易和政治赚钱的--因此他是一个暴发户，是一个强烈的大都市人。这些研究的相似性和差异性为我们提供了一个视角，让我们可以更深入地了解地方精英和消费者的行为和态度。首先，它将修正我们对消费者在国内物质文化和消费主义转型的关键时期的做法和动机的理解。特别是，它挑战了消费主要是社会地位的表达的既定理论，强调文化资本的异质性，以及消费者行为的日常，偶然和关系性质。第二，通过探索人们作为国家和地方精英的一部分，但也作为家庭成员和具有自己的品味和价值体系的个人的运作方式，研究质疑（社会）结构和个人机构之间的关系。第三，它对地方文化的性质和结构提出了新的见解，建立在对地方身份的弹性的日益赞赏之上，通过18世纪世纪挑战国家-大都市品味系统的过度重要性。在学术界之外，这项研究将为更广泛的公众提供对乡村别墅运作的更细致入微的理解，并为遗产行业提供机会，将乡村别墅作为一个生活空间呈现出不同的叙述。