[Rarebooks] FS: 18th Century Great House Inventories - Downton Abbey, Anyone?

[Joslin Hall Rare Books]

TITLE: “Noble Households. Eighteenth-Century Inventories of Great English
Houses. A Tribute to John Cornforth”

Edited by Tessa Murdoch.
Published in Cambridge by John Adamson in 2006.

DISCUSSION: “Inventories of nine great country houses and four London town
houses were chosen for this book by the late John Cornforth, the
historian. They document the taste and lifestyle of leading grandees and
the households that supported them, and record in astonishing detail and
with great immediacy the goods and chattels accumulated, inherited, or
acquired for everyday use or enjoyment. Compiled swiftly on the spot, room
by room, with meticulous care, they were written by professional
appraisers, in consultation with family members or their stewards. The
language is startlingly modern. One house was equipped with a ‘washing
machine’, another refers to the latrine as ‘the boghouse’. Kitchen
utensils with French names reflect the presence of a French chef and the
adoption of French cooking methods. For today’s fascination with the
history of food and life below stairs, the contents of the kitchen and
scullery assume as much interest as the grand rooms of entertainment. The
equipment required to service the household, for cleaning, medical
treatment, brewing, baking and distilling reflects the community of
stewards, housekeepers and cooks that worked there. Above stairs these
inventories record the collecting habits of leading eighteenth-century
patrons and provide an opportunity to compare the arrangements of the
interiors of the great town and country houses of the same noble families
in different generations. A general introduction and short essays on each
group of inventories set the households in their historical context.
Illustrated with contemporary engravings of the houses and with portraits
of the owners of the time, the inventories will appeal to country-house
visitors, historians of interiors, patronage and collecting as well as to
scholars, curators, collectors, creative designers, film directors,
lexicographers and novelists.”

DESCRIPTION: Hardcover. 8.5”x11”, 308 pages, black & white illustrations,
dust jacket.

CONDITION NOTES: In fine, clean condition.

PRICE: $75. -

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JOSLIN HALL RARE BOOKS, ABAA
Fine books of the 16th-20th centuries
on the decorative and fine arts & design

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