The Material Landscapes of Scotland's Jewellery Craft, 1780-1914

During the 19th century, Scotland was home to a skilled group of jewellers who used materials from the country's natural landscape to create beautiful and intricate objects. This book challenges the idea that industrialization led to the decline of craft and reveals a vibrant picture of skilled producers who were driving new and revived areas of hand skill. By placing producers and their skill in cultural context, the book offers new insights into the wider transformations that marked British history during the long 19th century.

Format: Hardback
Length: 272 pages
Publication date: 27 July 2023
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC

During the long 19th century, Scotland was home to a skilled and established body of jewellers who had access to a diverse range of materials from the country's varied natural landscape. These materials included precious gold and silver, sparkling crystals and colorful stones, freshwater pearls, shells, and parts of rare animals. This book challenges the notion that the forces of industrialization led to the decline of craft. Instead, it reveals a vibrant picture of skilled producers who were driving new and revived areas of hand skill and who played a crucial role in fostering a focused cultural engagement with the natural world among both producers and consumers through the things they made. By placing producers and their skill in cultural context, the book offers new and multifaceted insights into the wider transformations that marked British history during the long 19th century.

Uniting a vast array of jewelry objects with a range of other sources, including paintings, engravings, newspaper reports, letters, inventories of big houses and small workshops, sketchbooks, novels, works of literary geology, and early travel writings, this book provides a deep dive into the cultural history of jewelry production through accessible thematic studies. By doing so, it sets out innovative methodologies for writing about the histories of craft production, the natural environment, and the material world.

Now available in a paperback edition, this book will be an important addition to the bookshelves of cultural historians, as well as those interested in the history of craft, the natural environment, and the material world.

Dimension: 229 x 152 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781501358005