Material Worlds examines consumption from an archaeological perspective, broadly exploring the intersection of social relations and objects through the processes of production, distribution, use, reuse, and discard. Interrogating individual objects as well as considering the contexts in which acts of consumption take place, a range of case studies present the intertwined issues of power, inequality, identity, and community as mediated through choice, access, and use of the diversity of mass-produced goods. Key themes of this innovative volume include the relationship between colonial, political and economic structures and the practices of consumption, the use of consumer goods in the construction and negotiation of identity, and the dialectic between strategies of consumption and individual or community choices. Situating studies of consumerism within the field of historical archaeology, this exciting collection reflects on the interrelationship between the material and ideological aspects of culture. With a focus on North America from the seventeenth through the early twentieth centuries, Material Worlds is an important examination of consumption which will appeal to scholars with interests in colonialism, gender and race, as well as those engaged with the material culture of the emergent modern world.

"Based around the matchless collections of British ceramics in the Victoria and Albert Museum, which curators began to assemble as early as the 1840s, this book charts the story of their development from the simple slipware drinking-vessel of the seventeenth century to the sophisticated enamelled and transfer-printed tableware of the early 1800s. The narrative takes us through successive changes of taste and manners, as British potters assimilated and adapted new, and often disparate, influences from Europe and the Far East. Ceramics, ubiquitous, disposable and quintessentially domestic, tended to reflect social changes quicker than other branches of the applied arts; for example, new fashions in dining and the taking of tea were responsible for major aspects of design and decoration, while the rapid rise of the Staffordshire figure enabled it to become a vehicle for satire, religion, or the commemoration of wildly popular but ephemeral events such as boxing matches and visits from touring menageries." "Keeping carefully chosen pieces, illustrated, at the forefront of his discussion, Robin Hildyard treats the subject variously by material, form, decoration or by broader theme, sometimes cutting across traditional boundaries in order to look behind established myths and the often misleading evidence of what has survived. The methods and history of manufacture are fully explored, from the workshop of the independent village potter to the industrialized nineteenth-century factory struggling with the stormy beginnings of trade unionism. The complex trade in ceramics both at home and abroad, and the transition from utilitarian household object to cherished item in collector's cabinet is also examined, along with the symbiotic relationship between collector and museum. This volume, filling the gap in current ceramic literature between narrower scholarly studies and the opulent catalogues of private collections, presents an expert and yet highly accessible view of a particularly rich seam of British material culture, guiding us from familiar ground into wider and sometimes uncharted territory."--BOOK JACKET.

Sheffield Castle presents an original perspective on an urban castle, resurrecting from museum archives a building that once made Sheffield a nexus of power in medieval England, its lords playing important roles in local, national, and international affairs. Although largely demolished at the end of the English Civil War, the castle has left an enduring physical and civic legacy, and continues to exert a powerful sway over the present townscape, and future development, of Sheffield. In this volume, we rediscover the medieval castle, explore its afterlife, and discuss its legacy for the regeneration of Sheffield into the twenty-first century. The authors bring to publication for the first time all the major excavations on the site, present the first modern study of artefacts excavated in the mid-twentieth century, and situate both in the context of the published and unpublished documentary record. They also tell the stories of those responsible for re-discovering the castle, the circumstances in which they were working, their archaeological methods, and the scholarly and political influences that shaped their narratives. In setting the study within the context of urban regeneration, Sheffield Castle differs from most publications of medieval castles. This regeneration narrative is both historical, addressing the ways in which successive building campaigns have encountered the castle remains, and current, as the future of the site is under active discussion following the demolition of the market hall built on the site in the 1960s. The book explores how the former existence of the castle, and the landscape in which it sat, including its deer park, have shaped the development of the ‘Steel City’. We see that the untapped heritage of the site has considerable value for the regeneration of what may now be one of the most deprived areas of Sheffield, but was once at its social, political and cultural heart.

Global goods were central to the material culture of eighteenth-century country houses. Across Europe, mahogany furniture, Chinese wallpapers and Indian textiles formed the backdrop to genteel practices of drinking sweetened coffee, tea and chocolate from Chinese porcelain. They tied these houses and their wealthy owners into global systems of supply and the processes of colonialism and empire. Global Goods and the Country House builds on these narratives, and then challenges them by decentring our perspective. It offers a comparative framework that explores the definition, ownership and meaning of global goods outside the usual context of European imperial powers. What were global goods and what did they mean for wealthy landowners in places at the ‘periphery’ of Europe (Sweden and Wallachia), in the British colonies of North America and the Caribbean, or in the extra-colonial context (Japan or Rajasthan)? By addressing these questions, this volume offers fresh insights into the multi-directional flow of goods and cultures that enmeshed the eighteenth-century world. And by placing these goods in their specific material context - from the English country house to the princely palaces of Rajasthan - we gain a better understanding of their use and meaning, and of their role in linking the global and the local.

An essential handbook for studio potters working towards achieving a fantastic spectrum of colourful glazes. Colour in Glazes teaches you all the methods for achieving colour in glazes, focusing on colouring oxides in detail, including the newly available rare earth oxides. Find out about the types of base glazes and the fluxes used to make them in relation to colour response as well as using colouring oxides to achieve depth and variety of colour, rather than resorting to commercial ceramic stains. Discover the practical aspects of mixing, applying, testing and adjusting glazes, and explore a large section of test tiles and glaze recipes for use on white earthenware, stoneware and porcelain fired in electric, gas and salt kilns. This new edition, fully updated and revised, contains advances in technology and new discoveries in the Periodic Table. It is an infallible handbook to achieving the colour you want, and to help you broaden your palette.

Caribbean plantations and the forces that shaped them--slavery, sugar, capitalism, and the tropical, sometimes deadly environment--have been studied extensively. This volume brings together alternate stories of sites that fall outside the large cash-crop estates. Employing innovative research tools and integrating data from Dominica, St. Lucia, the Dominican Republic, Jamaica, Barbados, Nevis, Montserrat, and the British Virgin Islands, the contributors investigate the oft-overlooked interstitial spaces where enslaved Africans sought to maintain their own identities inside and outside the fixed borders of colonialism. Despite grueling work regimes and social and economic restrictions, people held in bondage carved out places of their own at the margins of slavery's reach. These essays reveal a complex world within and between sprawling plantations--a world of caves, gullies, provision grounds, field houses, fields, and the areas beyond them, where the enslaved networked, interacted, and exchanged goods and information. The volume also explores the lives of poor whites, Afro-descendant members of military garrisons, and free people of color, demonstrating that binary models of black slaves and white planters do not fully encompass the diversity of Caribbean identities before and after emancipation. Together, the analyses of marginal spaces and postemancipation communities provide a more nuanced understanding of the experiences of those who lived in the historic Caribbean, and who created, nurtured, and ultimately cut the roots of empire. A volume in the Florida Museum of Natural History: Ripley P. Bullen Series

At the beginning of the twenty-first century, scholarly interest in ceramics is at an all-time high. As a vehicle for much-needed synthesis, Ceramics in America is an interdisciplinary annual journal that examines the role of historical ceramics in the American context. Intended for collectors, historical archaeologists, curators, decorative arts students, social historians and contemporary potters, every issue features a variety of ground-breaking scholarly articles, new discoveries in the field, and book and exhibition reviews for this diverse audience.The 2006 issue of Ceramics in America will offer another comprehensive compilation of articles and new discoveries. This issue will review evidence of Dutch and English delft tiles used in seventeenth- and eighteenth-century American fireplaces. It will also feature new information about American stoneware and the archaeological recovery of commemorative wares related to George Washington in Alexandria, Virginia. The highlight of the journal will be the second part of John Austin's examination of potter Palin Thorely's career and production in Williamsburg, Virginia.