Helen Jacobsen
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- January 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199693757
- eISBN:
- 9780191731976
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199693757.003.0005
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Early Modern History, Cultural History
Fine art was only one area of luxury consumption: clothes, coaches, textiles, and interior furnishings were generally much more expensive than paintings, and highly sought after. English diplomats ...
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Fine art was only one area of luxury consumption: clothes, coaches, textiles, and interior furnishings were generally much more expensive than paintings, and highly sought after. English diplomats abroad were exposed to all areas of cultural life and used their access to foreign luxury goods to procure fashionable items for their friends, patrons, and even for the king. An understanding of the importance of the visual trappings of majesty was potentially as useful politically at the later Stuart courts as a military or legal training. Beds, textiles, furniture, wall hangings, silver, and coaches were bought by diplomats; when brought back to England they had a rarity or novelty factor, or put the owner in the height of fashion; either way, they lent the owner a prestige and standing that set him apart from the crowd.Less
Fine art was only one area of luxury consumption: clothes, coaches, textiles, and interior furnishings were generally much more expensive than paintings, and highly sought after. English diplomats abroad were exposed to all areas of cultural life and used their access to foreign luxury goods to procure fashionable items for their friends, patrons, and even for the king. An understanding of the importance of the visual trappings of majesty was potentially as useful politically at the later Stuart courts as a military or legal training. Beds, textiles, furniture, wall hangings, silver, and coaches were bought by diplomats; when brought back to England they had a rarity or novelty factor, or put the owner in the height of fashion; either way, they lent the owner a prestige and standing that set him apart from the crowd.
