Name/Title
American Fancy: Exuberance in the Arts, 1790-1840Entry/Object ID
2007.002.0083Description
Between 1790 and 1840, millions of middle-class Americans throughout the nation encountered "Fancy": they rode in a Fancy sleigh, dressed up in Fancy clothes, blew their noses in Fancy handkerchiefs, bought goods at Fancy shops, ate at Fancy tables on Fancy dishes, and slept under Fancy coverlets. Not just fancy but Fancy: an early 19th-century cultural phenomenon born out of new and enlightened ways of seeing, understanding, and responding to the surrounding world. Fancy expressed itself in just about everything that pleased the senses; generally colorful and boldly patterned, it elicited delight, awe, surprise, whim, and caprice. Whether experienced in the form of painted surfaces, kaleidoscopic quilts, or imaginary landscapes, Fancy engaged the emotions and expanded the imagination, expressing the core of human fancy.
American Fancy offers an appropriately fantastic experience of this uniquely American sensibility. Author Sumpter Priddy has assembled and produced an original oeuvre in the field of decorative arts, going beyond the traditional modes of furniture analysis, which concentrate on style, history, and construction, to consider the perceptual and emotional responses through which the original users and viewers would have interacted with these material things. To this end he employs the interpretive methods used in the fields of literature, fine arts, philosophy, and even psychology. Rich, fully illustrated, wondrously researched, and bound in a cover that imitates a typical Fancy pattern, American Fancy does its marvelous subject true.
xxxiv, 267 p. : ill. (chiefly col.) ; 31 cm.Collection
Historic Charleston Foundation LibraryAcquisition
Accession
2007.002.Source or Donor
New Library Catalog Records (2007)Acquisition Method
Found in CollectionLexicon
Nomenclature 4.0
Nomenclature Primary Object Term
BookNomenclature Sub-Class
Other DocumentsNomenclature Class
Documentary ObjectsNomenclature Category
Category 08: Communication ObjectsSearch Terms
Fine Arts, Decorative arts; applied arts; decoration and ornament, History of decorative arts, Decorative arts--United States--History--18th century--Themes, motives, Decorative arts--United States--History--19th century--Themes, motives, Fantasy in art, Emotions in art, Imagination (Philosophy)Book Details
Author
Priddy, Sumpter T., 1953-Edition
1st ed.Publisher
Chipstone FoundationDate Published
2004Call No.
NK806 .P75 2004ISBN
0972435395LCCN
2003028173Notes
Copy No.: 0Location
Location
Building
NRH Research RoomCategory
PermanentDate
February 7, 2023General Notes
Note
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. 251-255) and index.
By Sumpter T. Priddy III and the Chipstone Foundation.Created By
admin@catalogit.appCreate Date
October 2, 2007Updated By
sferguson@historiccharleston.orgUpdate Date
April 5, 2023