The importation of English furniture into Virginia, 1750-1800
Date
1989
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Publisher
University of Delaware
Abstract
The importation of English furniture into Virginia is a subject about which much speculation has circulated, but limited study has been made. This paper focuses attention on three facets of importation: the processes and mechanics of importation, the cultural significance of English goods in Virginia society, and the known craftsmen and products associated with the English export trade in furnishings. The sources examined include British customs records, correspondence relating to the trans-Atlantic tobacco trade, and surviving English furniture with a Virginia provenance. By documenting an important shift in the routes, patrons, and extent of furniture importation between 1750 and 1800, this data demonstrates that the trade in imported furniture represents a revealing, and largely untapped gauge of the economic, social, and political changes taking place in the cultural relationship between Virginia and England in the second half of the eighteenth century. (Abstract from ProQuest citation page.)