The emergence of the antique and curiosity dealer 1815 - c.1850 : the commodification of historical objects

Abstract

The publication in 1836 of Sir Samuel Rush Meyrick and Henry Shaw’s Specimens of Ancient Furniture, which for the first time illustrated historical objects cited to be in the possession of dealers, as well as collectors, consolidated the emergence of the antique and curiosity dealer as a discrete social and cultural identity and at the same time firmly embedded the historical object as commodity in the contemporary culture.  Taking this important antiquarian publication as evidence of a significant shift this investigation considers the wider social and cultural impact of the emergence of the antique and curiosity dealer during the opening decades of the nineteenth century.  The project is set against the social and cultural change of early nineteenth century Britain and an emerging interest in historical objects, centred around ideas of antiquarianism, the commercialisation of culture and the intellectualism of collecting.  The project concentrates on the period 1815-c.1850 and places the emergence of the dealer in relation to the notion of an evolving historical consciousness in the period.  This study takes as its focus the activities and practices of an early nineteenth century antique and curiosity dealer, John Coleman Isaac (c.1803-1887).  Histories of collecting have, for the most part, assigned the collector with a degree of agency that has led to the activities and practices of the dealer being placed at the periphery of the narratives of collecting.  This study, as well as investigating this narrative of displacement, places the dealer at the centre of an investigation that describes and contextualises the various roles that the antique and curiosity dealer played in the wider early nineteenth century antique and curiosity markets.

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