This illustrated catalogue in the series on Collectors and Collecting accompanies an exhibition at Kenwood (19 October 2001 to 27 January 2002) on an 18th century Irish house and the collection largely formed there by the Cobbe family.

An accessible narrative biography, Frances Power Cobbe traces the details of Cobbe's life and work, analyzes her writing, and sets both in the context of the social and intellectual debates of her time.

"Through such everyday articles as linen shirts, wigs, silver teaspoons, pottery plates and engravings, Barnard evokes a striking variety of lives and attitudes. Possessions, he shows, even horses and dogs, highlighted and widened divisions, not only between rich and poor, women and men, but also between Irish Catholics and the Protestant settlers. Displaying fresh evidence and unexpected perspectives, the book throws new light on Ireland during a formative period. Its discoveries, set within the context of the 'consumer revolution' gripping Europe and North America, allow Ireland for the first time to be integrated into discussions of the pleasures and pains of consumerism."--BOOK JACKET.