Concepts of value in European material culture, 1500-1900

Abstract

"The dominance of economic repertories of value is a relatively new phenomenon, and one which directly correlates to the steady advent of capitalism in early modern Europe. This volume brings together scholars with expertise in a variety of related fields, including economic history, the history of consumption and material culture, art history, and the history of collecting, to explore changing concepts of value from the early modern period to the nineteenth century and present a new view on the advent of modern economic practices. Jointly, they fundamentally challenge traditional historical narratives about the rise of our contemporary market economy and consumer society"--

Contents

Locating and dislocating value : a pragmatic approach to early modern and nineteenth-century economic practices / Bert De Munck & Dries Lyna -- Expanding markets and market devices -- Labelling with numbers? : weavers, merchants and the valuation of linen in seventeenth-century Münster / Christof Jeggle -- Words of value? : art auctions and semiotic socialisation in the Austrian Netherlands (1750-1794) / Dries Lyna -- From a "knowledgeable" salesman towards a "recognizable" product? : questioning branding strategies before industrialization (Antwerp, 17th-19th centuries) / Ilja Van Damme -- Golden touchstones? : the culture of art auctions in Brussels, 1830-1900 / Anneleen Arnout -- Conventions, material culture, and institutions -- The justness of aestimatio and the justice of transactions : defining real estate values in early modern Milan / Michela Barbot -- Vehicles of disinterested pleasure : French painting and non-remunerative value in the eighteenth century / Tomas Macsotay -- Usefulness, ornamental function and novelty : debates on quality in button and buckle manufacturing in northern Italy (18th-19th centuries) / Barbara Bettoni -- The old and the new -- "Façon de venise" : determining the value of glass in early modern Europe / Corine Maitte -- The veneer of age : valuing the patina of silver in eighteenth-century Britain / Helen Clifford -- The value of a collection : collecting practices in early modern Europe / Adriana Turpin.