Description
Book SynopsisShortlisted for the History Book Award in Scotland''s National Book Awards, 2023During the long 19th century, Scotland was home to an established body of skilled jewellers who were able to access a range of materials from the country's varied natural landscape: precious gold and silver; sparkling crystals and colourful stones; freshwater pearls, shells and parts of rare animals.Following these materials on their journey from hill and shore, across the jeweller's bench and on to the bodies of wearers, this book challenges the persistent notion that the forces of industrialisation led to the decline of craft. It instead reveals a vivid picture of skilled producers who were driving new and revived areas of hand skill, and who were key to fostering a focused cultural engagement with the natural world among both producers and consumers through the things they made. By placing producers and their skill in cultural context, the book reveals how examining the materiality of eve
Trade ReviewThis extensively researched and beautifully illustrated book makes an important contribution to material culture studies. It puts the jewellery makers and their materials at the centre of the discussion, around which flow the currents of cultural, intellectual, aesthetic and economic aspects of their craft. The result is a brilliantly effective interdisciplinary account of making and meaning in Scottish jewellery practice in the long 19th century. * Dr. Simon Bliss, author of Jewellery in the Age of Modernism 1918-1940 (2021) *
This is a wonderful book which will become the standard work on Scotland’s jewellery craft for many years to come. Thorough and meticulous research is blended with eloquent prose and an array of splendid images to enchanting effect. * Professor Emeritus Sir Tom Devine, University of Edinburgh, UK *
From Cairngorm pebbles and Perthshire pearls to Edinburgh goldsmiths and the craftswomen of Inverness, Laurenson shows us the places and people of Scotland in vivid and innovative ways that will inspire all readers to see the past afresh. * David Gange, author of The Frayed Atlantic Edge (2021), joint winner of the Highland Book Prize, and Associate Professor of History, the University of Birmingham, UK *
Essential reading for all who seek to understand the role of jewellery, and why it matters, in a period of huge social change. Bristling with new research, this engaging and highly original account takes cultural history deep into Scotland and far beyond. * Judy Rudoe, Curator, 1800 to the present, British Museum, UK *
This book is a highly original account full of new information from contemporary letters, newspapers, novels, and paintings. It is essential for anyone interested in jewellery and wearable ornaments or in Scotland’s cultural history … As a keen mountain lover, she brings a palpable love of the materials that makes the book a joy to read ...This compellingly written and well-illustrated book is one you will return to repeatedly and is unquestionably worth the outlay. -- Journal of the Decorative Arts Society * Judy Rudoe, British Museum Curator *
Table of ContentsIntroduction: Revealing Craft: Fusing Nature and Culture Chapter 1: Making Things: In the Jewellery Workshop Chapter 2: New-Old Objects: Deconstructing and Reconstructing the Past Chapter 3: Metals: Landscape and Memory in Gold and Silver Chapter 4: Minerals: Crafting Colour Worlds in Stone Chapter 5: (Un)Living Things: Material Afterlives in Pearls, Shells and Taxidermy Bibliography Index
