Book contents
- Small Things in the Eighteenth Century
- Small Things in the Eighteenth Century
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Notes on Contributors
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- Part I Reading Small Things
- Part II Small Things in Time and Space
- Part III Small Things at Hand
- Part IV Small Things on the Move
- 14 Hooke’s Ant
- 15 Portable Patriotism
- 16 Revolutionary Histories in Small Things
- 17 A Box of Tea and the British Empire
- Afterword
- Select Bibliography
- Index
16 - Revolutionary Histories in Small Things
Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette on Printed Ceramics, c. 1793–1796
from Part IV - Small Things on the Move
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 29 September 2022
- Small Things in the Eighteenth Century
- Small Things in the Eighteenth Century
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Notes on Contributors
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- Part I Reading Small Things
- Part II Small Things in Time and Space
- Part III Small Things at Hand
- Part IV Small Things on the Move
- 14 Hooke’s Ant
- 15 Portable Patriotism
- 16 Revolutionary Histories in Small Things
- 17 A Box of Tea and the British Empire
- Afterword
- Select Bibliography
- Index
Summary
Between the years 1793 and 1796, a proliferation of small, creamware ale mugs and jugs, transfer-printed in enamel, were made by regional English ceramic factories. These relatively affordable wares depicted scaled-down images of the most infamous scenes of the French Revolution. Used in taverns and in the home, these printed ceramics formed part of what Jon Mee has called the “conversable world”; they raise significant questions about the complex nature of counter- and prorevolutionary sentiment in England. Encoded with a multiplicity of meanings, they had the capacity to act as historical and political agents. This chapter situates these pots within wider conversations around the sociocultural aesthetics of ceramics, and examines the processes involved in, and the material and historical consequences of, scaling down such monumental events onto handheld objects.
Keywords
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Small Things in the Eighteenth CenturyThe Political and Personal Value of the Miniature, pp. 257 - 273Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2022
- 1
- Cited by