Small Things in the Eighteenth Century

Offering an intimate history of how small things were used handled and worn this collection shows how objects such as mugs and handkerchiefs were entangled with quotidian practices and rituals of bodily care. Small things from tiny books to ceramic trinkets and toothpick cases could delightand entertaingenerating tactile pleasuresfor users while at the same time signalling the limits of the body''s adeptnessor the hand''s dexterity. Simultaneously the volume explores the striking mobility of small things: how fans coins rings and pottery could for instance carry political philosophical and cultural concepts into circumscribed spaces. From thedecorativeand playfulto theuseful and performative such small things as tea caddies wampum beads and drawings of ants negotiated larger political cultural and scientific shifts as they transported aesthetic and cultural practices across borders via nationalist imagery gift exchange and the movement of global goods.