Turning Houses into Homes: A History of the Retailing and Consumption of Domestic FurnishingsFrom the earliest times, people have striven to turn their houses into homes through the use of decoration and furnishings, stimulating in turn a major commercial sector dedicated to offering the products and services essential to feed the ever-changing dictates of domestic fashion. Whilst there is plentiful evidence to show that these phenomena can be traced to medieval times, it is arguable that the eighteenth century witnessed the birth of a widespread and sophisticated consumer society. With a comparatively wealthy and socially mobile society, eighteenth-century Britain proved to be a fertile ground for ideas of home improvement and beautification, which were to persist to the present day. Turning Houses into Homes not only maps the history, changes, development and structure of the retail furnishing industry in Britain over three centuries, but also examines the relationships between the retailer and the consumer, looking at how retailers helped stimulate and shape the demand of their customers. Whilst work has been done on specific aspects of the home, very little has been written on the interaction between the retailer and consumer, and the pressures brought to bear on them by issues such as gender, education, status, symbolism, taste, decoration, hygiene, comfort and entertainment. As such, this book offers a valuable conjunction of retail history and consumption practices, which are examined through a multi-disciplinary approach to explore both their intimate connections and their wider roles in society. |
Contents
eighteenthcentury furniture | |
the growing demand for comfort | |
the response to the demands from | |
nineteenthcentury homes | |
from mass to niche marketing | |
the consumption of home | |
Conclusion | |
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Turning Houses Into Homes: A History of the Retailing and Consumption of ... Clive Edwards No preview available - 2017 |
Common terms and phrases
advertising Architecture British buying Cabinet Maker cabinet-makers carpets catalogue cent chairs changes chest cited comfort commented consumerism consumption contemporary customers Decoration demand department stores Design Design Council dining room display drawers economic Economist Intelligence Unit eighteenth century England English established example fashionable firm furniture and furnishings Furniture History furniture retailers furniture trade Gillow hire purchase House Furnishing household Ibid idea Ideal Home Ideal Home Exhibition identity IKEA important Ince and Mayhew included Intelligence Unit EIU interior inventory John Journal lifestyle London luxury Manchester manufacturers Maples Material Culture middle classes modern nineteenth century Oetzmann one’s Oxford Oxford Street parlour particular range reflected Retail Business retail trade role second-hand selling Sheraton shops showrooms social society sold Street style supply taste textiles Thomas Chippendale Tottenham Court Road twentieth century University Press upholsterer urban Victorian whilst women