Commoditie, Firmness, and Delight: The Fabric, Social Life, and Culture of the Tudor and Stuart Home
The Tudor and Stuart period, from 1485 to 1714, can in many ways be said to have laid the foundations for modern England–the replacement of feudal values with greater individual freedom and industry. Social changes were reflected in domestic organization, and technical developments–such as glazed windows and fireplaces–led to a greater degree of domestic comfort. The Elizabethan country house was the stage for a flamboyant and confident elite, employing Renaissance motifs in architecture and decoration, whilst early Stuart Italianate architecture reflected the elitist tendency that contributed to the conflicts of the Civil Wars. It was from this same society that early settlers made for the contrasting life of the New World, which will also be examined. The extravagant society of the Restoration greeted the development of new skills in interior furnishings and display within the fashionable apartment and in London the establishment of town houses and an urbane culture. The late seventeenth century saw a vogue for exotic artifacts in elite homes, and by the end of Stuart rule the stage was set for the eighteenth century culture of consumer decencies for the home. Greater prosperity brought improved houses for the artisan and merchant, whilst in the countryside vernacular forms of dwelling evolved more gradually. This richly illustrated course examines the homes of the period both humble and grand, with several visits to notable historic houses of the period.
Tutor biography
Antony Buxton is a lecturer in the history of furniture and domestic culture for Oxford University Department for Continuing Education and other institutions. He is currently engaged in doctoral research on the domestic culture of the seventeenth century.
Field trips
Great Chalfield Manor, Chavenage, Weald and Downland Museum (also perhaps Chastleton House and Broughton Castle and Garden), Ham House, Hampton Court Palace
Suggested reading
Strong, Roy. Spirit of Britain, chapters 10–23 inclusive. Random House, 2000.
Girouard, Mark. Life in the English Country House, chapters 4 and 5. Yale University Press, 1994.
Mowl, Timothy. Elizabethan and Jacobean Style. Phaidon, 2001.
Credit and Enrollment Information
X407 (3 semester units in History)
(EDP 284133)