Objects of Delight

Abstract
Acknowledgements
Preamble
The research question
1: Introduction: "Strange objects enough": miniature objects in working-class contexts; The value of miniature objects to archaeologists and historians; Serendipitous research: exploring virtual resources; The material culture of miniaturisation; Plaster of Paris; Mini-me: my involvement in this study
2: Encounters with miniaturisation: A Dinky dustbin lorry; The key; My mother; My sister; My brother; The Hucknall Miniaturists Society; A mantelpiece in Wales; Two transparencies; A tipper wagon from Ghent, Belgium; A girl with Staffordshire dog and parrot; Two ballerina clocks; Love letters; "A crude white porcelain figure:" From Sandhills to Sandpoint; A Venus
3: "The importance of trifles": Making sense of miniatures: an archaeological approach; Definitions: slippery meanings and small-scale things; Definitions; Imaginary miniatures; The people from below: objects of delight in "working-class" contexts; "Images": what this meant in the nineteenth century<; Mass-produced miniatures as material culture; Scale; The potent miniature; Miniatures as things; Things with power; The social life of miniatures; Symmetry; Miniatures as memories; Miniatures as playthings; Miniatures in the ecology of the home; The symbolic home; "Precious, useless objects"; Absence: the archaeology of nineteenth-century working-class homes; Contexts of absence; Absence: the fragile materiality of "images"
4: Methods: Working with what is left of the past; Two-dimensional archaeology; Going beyond archaeology; Interrogating the object
5: Green parrots and spotted cats: The Working-Class Context; Working-class materiality — the parlour problem; Fictional realities; The working-class home; Materiality and mantelpieces; The materiality of the mantelpiece; The patron saint of lost objects
6: The archaeology of the Plumtree Court mantelpiece I: "Of No Great Note": the historical context; The archaeological assemblage; The source of the artefacts
7: The archaeology of the Plumtree Court mantelpiece II: The ubiquitous image-seller; Image sellers' lives, reality and romance; Leather Lane and Saffron Hill; L'hiver est dur, la bise est froide; Upsets; "As many heads as a Hydra:" The Romantic Image-Seller; Culture, language; Missionaries of art; Did you ever sell any? Image-seller humour; What image sellers sold
8: The archaeology of the Plumtree Court mantelpiece III: The miniatures; The cat connection; The cat conundrum; The feline race; Cats and the home; Once upon a time...
9: "Buy Image!" The archaeology of a ballad: "Buy Image!" lyrics excavated; Deeper excavation; Le Petit Marchand de Statuettes: a voice from the past
10: The archaeology of the Plumtree Court mantelpiece IV: Absences: the material conundrum; The usefulness of "useless things"; Who, why and how?; Venuses; Napoleons; The Wally Dug; Taste and working-class images; Emulation, resistance and identity; "Lurking places:" the threat of revolution; Identity: the miniature as “selfie”; Memory; Changing and enduring tastes; Power; Sentimentality; Bric-à-brac: objects of dubious virtue; Nineteenth-century bric-à-brac: "all monsters and dust"; Trash and trumpery; Gender; "The plaster of Paris man finds his harvest"; Landladies, chambers of horrors and mysterious animals; The love of art; Superstition; Eroticism; Such legs as these; Bollards — a mystery?; Figures of fun; The merry mantelpiece: a "museum in miniature"; Economy; Cost; Value: crime and the chimney-piece
11: Object Worlds: Things with which we live; Object worlds as reaction; Object worlds as collections; Object worlds in working-class homes; The rookery: fact or fantasy?; Parlours as phantasmagorias; Networks and entanglements; A stream of events; The network
12: Mantelpieces, miniatures and miniaturisation — conclusions: Speaking of what is: the power of common things; Value; Future work; Ethnoarchaeology: The mantelpiece project; Contemporary archaeology: the archaeology of charity shops
Conclusions: A delight in "intricate innovations"; A delight in "images"; A delight in the "classical"; A delight in "superfluities"; A delight in humour; A delight in group-consciousness; A delight in "art"; A worldwide delight; Flavour
In summary
13: Two Stories: The image-boy's tale; A tale from Plumtree Court
Afterword
APPENDICES: Appendix I: I for images: the image-seller in images [in production]; Appendix II: Images in words; Appendix III: The broken cow and other stories
References

Last updated December 2020

NOTE
This online version of my PhD thesis has been reformatted, edited, corrected and in some places enhanced from the original hard copy. Both text and illustrations are copyright.
The existence of an image in this online version does not infer in any way that it is in the public domain.

Ralph Mills

Objects of Delight

CONTENTS