New Book | Interiors in the Age of Enlightenment
From Bloomsbury:
Stacey Sloboda, ed., Interiors in the Age of Enlightenment: A Cultural History (London: Bloomsbury Visual Arts, 2023), 248 pages, ISBN: 978-1350408029, $120.
Interiors in the Age of Enlightenment provides a comprehensive and interdisciplinary overview of the cultural history of interior design and interior spaces from 1700 to 1850. Considering the interior as material, social, and cultural artefact, this volume moves beyond conventional descriptive accounts of changing styles and interior design fashions, to explore in depth the effect on the interior of the materials, processes, aesthetic philosophies, and cultural attitudes of the age. From the Palace of Versailles to Virginia coffeehouses, and from chinoiserie bathhouses to the trading exchanges of the West Indies, the chapters in this book examine a wide range of themes including technological advancements, public spaces, gender and sexuality, and global movements in interior designs and decorations. Drawing together contributions from leading scholars, this volume provides the most authoritative and comprehensive survey of the history of interiors and interior architecture in the long eighteenth century.
Stacey Sloboda is Paul H. Tucker Professor of Art at the University of Massachusetts Boston.
c o n t e n t s
Preface
Introduction: The Interior in the Age of Enlightenment — Stacey Sloboda
1 Beauty: Cultural Aesthetics in the Enlightenment Interior — Anne Nellis Richter
2 Technology: Cultural Transfer, Imitation, and Improvement of Materials and Surfaces of the Interior — Noémie Étienne
3 Designers, Professions, Trades: Conceiving and Making the Interior — Conor Lucey
4 Global Movements: Exoticism and Hybridity in the Globalized Interior — Vanessa Alayrac-Fielding
5 Private Spaces: Performing the Home — Mimi Hellman
6 Public Spaces: Staging Ritual and Shaping Identity — Laurel O. Peterson
7 Gender and Sexuality: The Desire of Decor — Michael Yonan
8 The Interior in the Arts: Literary and Visual Representations — Karen Lipsedge and Melinda McCurdy
Bibliography
Index
Conference | The Scottish Interior
Embroidered valance celebrating the marriage of James Francis Stuart and Clementina Sobieska, 1719 (Edinburgh: National Museum of Scotland, A.1988.263 C). Part of a set of two crewel work wall hangings and four valances of white linen embroidered in coloured wool with a ‘Tree of Life’ pattern. This valance is embroidered with the cypher ‘IRCR / 1719’ under a crown within a sunflower, for ‘Jacobus Rex Clementina Regina’, referring to the marriage of James Francis Stuart and Clementina Sobieska.
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From the National Museum of Scotland:
The Scottish Interior
National Museum of Scotland, Edinburgh, 1 December 2023
A one-day conference on aspects of the Scottish interior from the 16th century to the present.
Thirty years on from the publication of Ian Gow’s defining book The Scottish Interior, this conference brings together specialists from a range of backgrounds to discuss questions of Scottishness—or lack thereof—in Scottish interiors from the 16th century to the present. Exploring a range of themes from the Renaissance to the Arts and Crafts movement via ‘Balmoralisation’, and with an interdisciplinary approach looking at patronage, collecting, architecture, and design, this event will appeal to anyone interested in Scottish history, design, and identity. The event is free, but booking is essential. Lunch and refreshments will be provided.
Armchair designed by Robert Adam for Sir Lawrence Dundas and made in Thomas Chippendale’s workshop, 1765 (Edinburgh: National Museum of Scotland, K.2002.9).
p r o g r a m m e
9.00 Arrival
9.30 First Panel
• Helen Wyld — Introduction
• Sally Rush — The Renaissance Interior in Scotland
• Michael Pearce — North-Britons: Interiors for an Anglicised Scottish Aristocracy
10.50 Tea
11.20 Second Panel
• Ian Gow — The Scottish Interior
• Stephen Jackson — The Role of Antique Furniture in the Scottish Interior
• Annette Carruthers — The Arts and Crafts Interior in Scotland
12.40 Lunch
13.50 Third Panel
• Emma Baillie — Messages in Plaster: The Work of Thomas Clayton at Blair Castle
• Calum Robertson — The Scottish Armoury
• Godfrey Evans — Hamilton Palace: The Projection of Exceptional Connoisseurship and Exalted Status by the Premier Peers of Scotland
15.10 Tea
15.40 Fourth Panel
• Mary Miers — Romantic Retreats
• Mhairi Maxwell, James Wylie, and Jonathan Faiers — Balmoralisation
16.20 Round table discussion with all speakers
Enfilade 
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