Inventing Boston : design, production, and consumption /

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Bibliographic Details
Author / Creator:	Cooke, Edward S., Jr. (Edward Strong), 1954- author.
Imprint:	New Haven ; London : Yale University Press for the Paul Mellon Center for Studies in British Art, 2019.
Description:	viii, 221 pages : illustrations (some color) ; 28 cm
Language:	English
Subject:	Decorative arts -- Massachusetts -- Boston -- History -- 17th century. Decorative arts -- Massachusetts -- Boston -- History -- 18th century. Material culture -- Massachusetts -- Boston -- History -- 17th century. Material culture -- Massachusetts -- Boston -- History -- 18th century. Furniture -- Massachusetts -- Boston -- History -- 17th century. Furniture -- Massachusetts -- Boston -- History -- 18th century. Material culture. Furniture. Decorative arts. Boston (Mass.) -- History -- Colonial period, ca. 1600-1775. Massachusetts -- Boston. History.
Format:	Print Book
URL for this record:	http://pi.lib.uchicago.edu/1001/cat/bib/12310283

Hidden Bibliographic Details
Varying Form of Title:	Inventing Boston : design, production, and consumption, 1680-1720
ISBN:	9780300232110 030023211X
Notes:	Includes bibliographical references (pages 186-205) and index.
Summary:	During the late 17th and early 18th centuries, Boston was both a colonial capital and the third most important port in the British empire, trailing only London and Bristol. Boston was also an independent entity that pursued its own interests and articulated its own identity while selectively appropriating British culture and fashion. This revelatory book examines period dwellings, gravestones, furniture, textiles, ceramics, and silver, revealing through material culture how the inhabitants of Boston were colonial, provincial, metropolitan, and global, all at the same time. Edward S. Cooke, Jr.'s detailed account of materials and furnishing practices demonstrates that Bostonians actively filtered ideas and goods from a variety of sources, combined them with local materials and preferences, and constructed a distinct sense of local identity, a process of hybridization that, the author argues, exhibited a conscious desire to shape a culture as a means to resist a distant, dominant power.

Review by Choice Review

Cooke (Yale) sees the Boston of 1680--1720 as exceptional and distinctive in terms of American decorative arts. Connected to the world, particularly London, Bostonians made objects with new interpretations through their selections and choices. They created a new and notable material culture, which the author divides into brick (architecture), slate (tombstones), wood (furniture and building), textiles, ceramics, and silver. Cooke explores each in great depth, providing careful examinations of craftspeople. Boston's material culture resulted in a new identity with locally made and imported goods. The prototype of Boston's "hybridization" of ideas and products from many sources was basically British, but it created new forms for production, reception, consumption, and circulation in the area around Boston. Patterns of trade are emphasized as traders influenced the Boston style by what they imported. Technical throughout, the volume is based on detailed, up-to-date research, particularly from primary sources (documented in extensive notes). The volume is superb in its presentation of outstanding color plates, black-and-white pictures, and 19th-century photographs of architecture, maps, and diagrams. Cooke brings together many influences to explore the process of transforming material culture into a Boston style. This is a valuable addition to the literature on American decorative arts. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty. --William L. Whitwell, formerly, Hollins College

Review by Choice Review

Inventing Boston : design, production, and consumption /

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