Crafting Identities: Artisan Culture in London, C. 1550-1640 (Studies in Design and Material Culture)

Crafting identities explores artisanal identity and culture in early modern London. It demonstrates that the social, intellectual, and political status of London's crafts and craftsmen were embedded in particular material and spatial contexts. Examining a range of manuscript, visual, and material culture sources, the book investigates for the first time how London's artisans physically shaped the built environment, and how the experience of negotiating urban spaces affected their own individual and collective identities. The book identifies a significant cultural development previously overlooked by historians: a movement to enlarge, beautify, and rebuild livery company halls in the City of London from the mid-sixteenth-century to the start of the civil wars. By exploring these re-building projects in depth, it throws new light on artisanal cultural production and self-presentation in England's most diverse and challenging urban environment. Craft company halls became multifunctional sites for knowledge production, social and economic organisation, political exchange, and collective memorialisation. The forms, uses, and perceptions of company halls worked to define relationships and hierarchies within the guild, and shaped its external civic and political relations. Applying an innovative and interdisciplinary methodology to the examination of artisanal cultures, Crafting identities engages with the fields of social and cultural history and the histories of art, design, and architecture. It will appeal to scholars of early modern social, cultural, and urban history, and those interested in design and architectural history. Crafting identities explores artisanal identity and culture in early modern London. It demonstrates that the social, intellectual and political status of London's crafts and craftsmen were embedded in particular material and spatial contexts. Through examination of a wide range of manuscript, visual and material culture sources, the book investigates for the first time how London's artisans physically shaped the built environment of the city and how the experience of negotiating urban spaces impacted directly on their distinctive individual and collective identities. Applying an innovative and interdisciplinary methodology to the examination of artisanal cultures, the book engages with the fields of social and cultural history and the histories of art, design and architecture. It will appeal to scholars of early modern social, cultural and urban history, as well as those interested in design and architectural history. Front matter 1 Dedication 7 Contents 9 Plates 11 Figures 13 Acknowledgements 15 Abbreviations 17 Note on spellings and dates 18 Introduction: crafting identities 19 Artisanal identities and cultures of knowledge 54 The view from the building site 90 Rebuilding and adaptation 117 Material gifting: artisanal virtuosity and material memorialisation 168 Shaping artisanal and civic identities 194 ‘Outward walls’ and ‘publique workes’ 228 Conclusion 253 Select bibliography 260 Index 273