Cunningham, Jessica
(2016)
Craft and Culture: the design, production and consumption of silver in Ireland in the seventeenth century.
PhD thesis, National University of Ireland Maynooth.
Abstract
Silver was acquired, used and treasured at many levels of Irish society in the
seventeenth century. On church altars, in the bed chambers of nobility, within the
strongboxes of town corporations and on the dining tables of merchants, silver was
a practical and decorative feature of day-to-day life in Ireland. This thesis accounts
for the history of silver – its design, production and consumption – in Ireland
during this century of considerable change.
This thesis will examine both extant objects and documentary sources to redress the
imbalance in the existing literature that has cultivated the impression that the
production and consumption of silver in Ireland in this period, particularly in the
century's first half, was sparse or, indeed, non-existent. The producers of silver in
Ireland – the goldsmiths – were a diverse group of native and immigrant skilled
craftsmen whose numbers in Dublin and in other urban centres grew exponentially
over the course of the century. The increasing numbers of these craftsmen and the
corresponding rise in their production of silver, as this thesis will present, mirrored
the unprecedented demand among consumers for items of silver with which to
showcase their wealth, civility and taste.
Images of extant Irish silver – domestic, ecclesiastical, civic and ceremonial – will
be deployed throughout this study to illustrate the considerable variety of form,
ornamentation and technique of Irish goldsmiths’ output. These objects bear the
marks of their makers, the inscriptions of their owners and the evidence of
engagement with prevailing styles of the period, positioning Irish goldsmiths and
consumers within the vibrant exchange of European design innovations and
fashions. Documentary evidence will demonstrate the extent to which items of
silver were commissioned, produced, donated, presented, recycled, sold or stolen.
This interdisciplinary thesis will show how, as both artefact and symbol, and within
the wider context of European design and consumption, silver played an
undeniably important role in seventeenth-century Irish society.
| Item Type: |
Thesis
(PhD)
|
| Keywords: |
Craft; Culture; design; production; consumption; silver; Ireland; seventeenth century; |
| Academic Unit: |
Faculty of Arts,Celtic Studies and Philosophy > History |
| Item ID: |
15444 |
| Depositing User: |
IR eTheses
|
| Date Deposited: |
08 Feb 2022 15:20 |
| URI: |
|
| Use Licence: |
This item is available under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial Share Alike Licence (CC BY-NC-SA). Details of this licence are available
here |
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