Luxury [ Taste & Manners ]
… churchmen and landowners’ 2 who displayed items associated with ‘surplus resources’ and ‘high culture’ to cement their elite status and underline their authority. Thus, the display of luxurious items was also a display of political and / or … glass, printed cotton) became available to evermore citizens. Luxury goods were no longer only displayed by an elite but also by members of the middle class, even working people, in sociable contexts, for instance at the tea-table … and personal comfort. Initially, some such items were expensive, difficult to obtain, and only available to a small elite. Chinaware from Asia for example was a collector’s item in the early eighteenth century but a widely popular …
Art | Commodities | Community | Consumption | Furniture | Luxury | Porcelain | Shopping | Tea-table | Women
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