Edition of extremely rich household inventories provides a wealth of information about life at the time. It is rare to find a sequence of household inventories surviving on the site they record; and rarer still when that house has been occupied continuously by generations of the family who built it circa 1510. The four inventories are dated 1597, 1626, 1708 and 1741 but some were updated and annotated for years beyond. They list over 4,500 items by room, working space or outdoor area. Entries are rich with evidence of recycling and upcycling, dimensions and design, fabric and textile, construction and colour, and sometimes provenance or provider. A numerical reference has been added to each entry in the transcriptions and this, in turn, is cited in all main and cross-references in theIndex and Glossary of Household Goods which is a substantial part of the volume. During the span of these inventories, the Tollemaches rose from the status of gentry to earldom: their household possessions reflect this transition vividly and an appendix traces the parallel development of Helmingham Hall. Removals from the Hall equipped the family's 17th-century home at Fakenham Magna in Suffolk and a further appendix is devoted to this property.Compilation of a household inventory was never a statutory requirement, and the introduction answers a question fundamental to any study of these records: why were the inventories compiled? Moira Coleman is the author of Fruitful Endeavours: the 16th-century household secrets of Catherine Tollemache at Helmingham Hall. She is an Open University graduate, an independent scholar, now retired from a career in adult education.
Reviews
The thoroughness of this edition makes it an ideal source for use by students -- SIXTEENTH CENTURY JOURNAL
Moira Coleman has done a wonderful job in assembling the material together. The book will be essential reading for anyone who is interested in Helmingham Hall, the Tollemache family or in household inventories. It will also be of relevance to specialist researchers in furnishings, textiles and art. * PROCEEDINGS OF SUFFOLK INSTITUTE OF ARCHAEOLOGY AND HISTORY *
This book is a very valuable addition to the corpus of published source material. * JOURNAL OF FURNITURE HISTORY *
This volume will of course be of interest to East Anglian local historians [.] it will also be of great use to historians of various aspects of material culture. * THE LOCAL HISTORIAN *
[.]Feast of records. * AGRICULTURAL HISTORY REVIEW *



Book Information
ISBN 9781783272747
Author Moira Coleman
Format Hardback
Page Count 389
Imprint The Boydell Press
Publisher Boydell & Brewer Ltd
Weight(grams) 1g