From Oroonoko Tobacco to Blackamoor Snuffboxes: Race, Gender and the Consumption of Snuff in Eighteenth-Century Britain

Vanessa Alayrac-Fielding

doi:10.3390/h10030092

From Oroonoko Tobacco to Blackamoor Snuffboxes: Race, Gender and the Consumption of Snuff in Eighteenth-Century Britain

Humanities ◽

10.3390/h10030092 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 10 (3) ◽

pp. 92

Author(s):

Vanessa Alayrac-Fielding

Keyword(s):

Eighteenth Century ◽

Black Body ◽

Tobacco Consumption ◽

Female Agency ◽

Tobacco Advertising ◽

Textual Representations ◽

Racist Ideology ◽

Eighteenth Century Britain ◽

Scholarly Attention ◽

Selection Of

This essay investigates the circulation of the trope of the Black body in visual and textual representations of tobacco consumption, both smoked and taken as snuff. I look at the ways in which tobacco advertising depicting the type of snuff for sale or representing enslaved Africans working on plantations articulated notions of race and coloniality. I then show that snuffboxes can be seen as material counterparts in the dissemination of racist ideology in the eighteenth century. The gender-defining practice of taking snuff is studied in relation to colonial politics using a selection of texts and a material corpus of rare extant “Blackamoor” snuffboxes (depicting the black body and face) that have not yet received scholarly attention. I argue that through female agency, the use of Blackamoor snuffboxes normalised slavery by integrating it in the cultural rituals of British sociability through a process of material aestheticisation.

Download Full-text

Sustainable Illumination for Baroque Paintings with Historical Context Considerations

Sustainability ◽

10.3390/su12208705 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 12 (20) ◽

pp. 8705

Author(s):

Pedro Luengo

Keyword(s):

Eighteenth Century ◽

Seasonal Changes ◽

Light Exposure ◽

Historical Context ◽

Zero Energy ◽

Museum Displays ◽

Zero Energy Building ◽

Sustainable Conservation ◽

Scholarly Attention ◽

Selection Of

The topic of museum illumination and conservation has been richly developed in recent years to take steps toward a zero-energy building concept. Most artworks preserved in museums’ expositions were designed for specifically defined light contexts, wherein daylight and seasonal changes were part of the artistic effect, an issue which has received little scholarly attention. From this premise, this paper aims to prove that defining the original illuminative context of artworks is required for a sustainable conservation, perception, and ultimate interpretation. To do this, a selection of seventeenth and eighteenth century churches and palaces from Europe, the Americas, and Asia will be presented using modern conservation frameworks for artworks. The results demonstrate that both aspects, chosen materials and light exposure, were connected, allowing the spaces to be effective without consuming too much electric lighting. This leads to a discussion about if museum displays should incorporate this context, if it is a more sustainable solution, and if it presents the artworks more accurately to visitors, even as other problems may arise.

Download Full-text

Celts and Romans on Tour

Celts, Romans, Britons ◽

10.1093/oso/9780198863076.003.0007 ◽

2020 ◽

pp. 117-140

Author(s):

Mary-Ann Constantine

Keyword(s):

Eighteenth Century ◽

Cultural Diversity ◽

Power Dynamics ◽

The Past ◽

Late Eighteenth Century ◽

Late Eighteenth ◽

Eighteenth Century Britain ◽

Selection Of

This chapter explores the presence of Romans and Britons in the tour literature of late-eighteenth-century Britain. It argues that the deeply ingrained narratives of Classical authors such as Caesar and Tacitus offered many tourists a framework not only for reading the past in the landscape, but also the present, as the recollection of former conflicts in situ stimulated questions of loyalty and cultural diversity within a recently ‘united’ Britain. An examination of a selection of tourist accounts from the 1770s to the early 1800s shows how certain key texts, notably Thomas Pennant’s Tours of Wales and Scotland, set the historical agenda for many decades, and reveals how the power dynamics of that ancient Classical/Celtic conflict could be usefully re-animated in different contemporary political contexts.

Download Full-text