Knick-knackery: the Deards family & their luxury shops, 1685-1785

Uittreksel

"John Deards' two daughters married Huguenots: Mary married Paul Bertrand and Elizabeth married Daniel Chenevix. They had their own shops, while Deards' son and grandson continued the initial business. The book tells the story of this family and gives some of the background to running a business in the eighteenth century. In London, in Westminster, Bath, Tunbridge Wells, Newmarket, Scarborough and Epsom, the family traded where their customers worked and socialised in the capital, relaxed at resorts and horse-racing, and attended parliament. William Deards worked in America for Charles Carroll, signatory of the Declaration of Independence, and the family had earlier links to America. Globally-sourced materials included porcelain from Asia and from Dresden. The family's aristocratic customers are revealed through letters, invoices and bank accounts, sources that also reveal some of their suppliers and their stock. The wealth of information that has survived, researched here for the first time, provides a new approach for those interested in eighteenth-century decorative arts and social history." -- from publisher's website.