Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-s2hrs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-05T15:07:05.819Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

11 - Two Men’s Leather Letter Cases

Mercantile Pride and Hierarchies of Display

from Part III - Small Things at Hand

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 September 2022

Chloe Wigston Smith
Affiliation:
University of York
Beth Fowkes Tobin
Affiliation:
Arizona State University
Get access

Summary

This chapter examines three leather letter cases, small, plain personal objects, similar to men’s wallets, the significance of which has been previously overlooked in museum collections. Despite their limited embellishments, small size, and low-status material, these letter cases prove to be extremely effective in providing us with insights into some of the key social and economic developments of the eighteenth century. The cases, through the biographies of their owners, provide tangible links to several aspects of eighteenth-century commerce: the transatlantic slave trade; the growth of the mercantile elite and their commercial networks within the consumer revolution; and the development of manufacturing and retail networks in English towns. Comparing the cases’ material details and composition with other extant examples, this chapter places them within the context of contemporary print culture, including the appearance of cases on trade cards, in novels, criminal trials, and accounts of slave trade voyages. These letter cases were acquired and carried by their owners not just as a means of transporting bills of exchange, letters, and sometimes notebooks, but also as a way of establishing and signaling to contemporaries mercantile-class identity and rising social status.

Type
Chapter
Information
Small Things in the Eighteenth Century
The Political and Personal Value of the Miniature
, pp. 172 - 186
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2022

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×