Cover image for The pocket : a hidden history of women's lives, 1660-1900
The pocket : a hidden history of women's lives, 1660-1900
Title:
The pocket : a hidden history of women's lives, 1660-1900
ISBN:
9780300253740
Edition:
Paperback edition.
Physical Description:
263 pages : illustrations (chiefly color) ; 24 cm.
Contents:
Introduction: 'Small things forgotten' -- 'Work'd pockets to my intire sattisfaction': making and getting pockets -- 'So many things': pockets and the labours of consumption -- 'They say there is no bottom to them?': pockets, possession and promise -- 'For the play and coach': pockets, mobility and sociability -- 'I turn my hand to anything to get a penny': pockets and work -- 'I always have the last sheet of my journal in my pocket': pockets, privacy and memory -- 'This is the sort of pocket our great grandmothers used to wear': the demise and afterlife of tie-on pockets.
Added Author:
Summary:
Pencils, a sketchbook, cake, yards of stolen ribbon, thimbles, snuff boxes, a picture of a lover, two live ducks: these are just some of the fascinating things carried by women and girls in their tie-on pockets, an essential accessory throughout the 18th and 19th centuries. This first book-length study of the tie-on pocket combines materiality and gender to provide new insight into the social history of women's everyday lives-from duchesses and country gentry to prostitutes and washerwomen-and explore their consumption practices, work, sociability, mobility, privacy, and identity. The authors draw on an unprecedented study of surviving pockets in museums and private collections to identify their materials, techniques, and decoration; their use is investigated through sources as diverse as criminal trials, letters, diaries, inventories, novels, and advertisements. Richly illustrated with paintings, satirical prints, and photographs of artifacts in detail, this innovative book reveals the unexpected story of these deeply evocative and personal objects.
Holds: