An Expensive Affair: The Cost of Elegance in Eighteenth-Century France and Italy
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An article, adapted from a 1983 lecture, on what elegant dress and lace cost in eighteenth-century France and Italy. The author converts livres and lire to dollars at one to one and sets luxury prices (laces, silks, furs, fans, shoes) against everyday costs such as bread and servants' and lace-makers' wages. The main case studies are Louis XV's lace purchases, Venetian ambassador Count Tiepolo's Paris household, and the 1788 Tiepolo-Priuli wedding, with notes on buying on credit, resale and rental of finery. It includes footnotes citing French and Venetian archives and nine illustrations of laces and portraits, mostly from the Metropolitan Museum.
- Type
- Article
- Date
- 1987
- Language
- English
- Pages
- 19
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From Ralph Griswold's Digital Archive, delivered by the University of Arizona.
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