Tag: material culture

  • Art in the Time of Coronavirus

    Art in the Time of Coronavirus

    By Zara Kesterton (@ZaraKesterton) 15 March 2020: we were beginning to realise just how much of an impact the coronavirus pandemic would have on all our lives. One of my friends messaged a group chat, ‘Now that we aren’t allowed to touch anything ever again does it spell the end of material culture? Is the…

  • Knitting the Archives

    Knitting the Archives

    If you walk into any charity shop, you are more than likely to find, somewhere, a box or folder full of old knitting patterns. The majority of people would overlook these – to those that cannot knit, the sheets look like indecipherable code, but even to those that can, the patterns are considered dated. But…

  • 10. Old Sheffield Plate Toaster

    10. Old Sheffield Plate Toaster

    By Meg Roberts (@megeroberts) Fancy some Regency-era cheese on toast? By the late eighteenth century, cheese toasters were all the rage among the British upper classes. The six removable trays in this particular toaster from the period could each hold a small slice of toast or bread, topped with cheese. To make the toast, hot…

  • 11. A Knotted Cord

    11. A Knotted Cord

    By Nico Bell-Romero (@NicoBellRomero) Receiving a knotted cord – a strand made from yucca leaves – might seem like a strange gift for Christmas, but in August 1680, during their revolt against the Spanish, the Pueblo peoples of present-day Mexico placed great importance on them.

  • 18. Vigani’s Cabinet

    18. Vigani’s Cabinet

    By Xinyi Wen (@HPSWarburgian) Red, umber, carmine, massicot yellow, ultramarine… in a 15×15 inches humble drawer, 63 kinds of pigments constituted a vibrant, colourful world. Each pigment was held in a labelled paper box lining inside the wooden grid, indicating these ingredients’ mobility and their flexibility of spatial arrangement. This drawer, together with other 28…