Luxury [ Taste & Manners ]
… who has argued that in a premodern society an ‘Old Luxury’ prevailed, functioning as ‘a prerogative of the privileged classes of rulers, warriors, churchmen and landowners’ 2 who displayed items associated with ‘surplus resources’ and … 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 (china) and dances (dress), … widely available and affordable. By the end of the eighteenth century, paintings decorated the interiors of prosperous middle-class homes, functioning both as self-representation (e.g. portraits) and as displays of taste (e.g. landscapes). …
Art | Commodities | Community | Consumption | Furniture | Luxury | Porcelain | Shopping | Tea-table | Women
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