Artifacts: How We Think and Write about Found Objects

272 Pages·2020·2.779 MB·English

by  Crystal B. Lake

Artifacts
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A
rtifacts
How We Think and Write about Found Objects
Crystal B. Lake
Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore
© 2020 Johns Hopkins University Press
All rights reserved. Published 2020
Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper
9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Johns Hopkins University Press
2715 North Charles Street
Baltimore, Maryland 21218-4363
www.press.jhu.edu
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Lake, Crystal B., author.
Title: Artifacts : how we think and write about found objects / Crystal B.
Lake.
Description: Baltimore : Johns Hopkins University Press, 2020. | Includes
bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2019017729 | ISBN 9781421436494 (hardcover : alk.
paper) | ISBN 1421436493 (hardcover : alk. paper) | ISBN 9781421436500
(paperback : alk. paper) | ISBN 1421436507 (paperback : alk. paper) | ISBN
9781421436517 (electronic) | ISBN 1421436515 (electronic)
Subjects: LCSH: Antiquities—Collectors and collecting—History—18th
century. | Archaeology—Political aspects—History—18th century. |
Antiquarians—18th century.
Classification: LCC CC100 .L34 2020 | DDC 930.1—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019017729
A catalog record for this book is available from the British Library.
All illustrations are courtesy of Special Collections and Rare Books, Univer-
sity of Missouri Libraries.
Special discounts are available for bulk purchases of this book. For more
information, please contact Special Sales at [email protected].
Johns Hopkins University Press uses environmentally friendly book materi-
als, including recycled text paper that is composed of at least 30 percent post-
consumer waste, whenever possible.
Contents
List of Illustrations vii Acknowledgments ix
Prologue. Things Speaking for Themselves 1
PART ONE. TERMS AND CONTEXTS
Chapter One. Leaving Room to Guess 21
Political Bric-a-Brac / What’s Really the Matter with Artifacts? /
Digging Up Suspicion and Critique
Chapter Two. Ten Thousand Gimcracks 47
Artifacts in the Cities of the Dead / Old Relics, New Sciences /
An Accumulative Virtuoso and an Accumulative Traitor /
Artifacts’ Affordances
PART TWO. CASE STUDIES
Chapter Three. Coins: The Most Vocal Monuments 79
Minting Memories / Small, Fake, and Two-Faced / Numismatic Fictions
Chapter Four. Manuscripts: Burnt to a Crust 109
Political Archives and Archival Politics / Walpole in the Archives /
Otranto’s Bloody Records
Chapter Five. Weapons: A Wilderness of Arms 137
Fear and Loathing in the Tower of London / The Weapons of the Ancients
and the Moderns / Knight-Errantry and Errant Knights
Chapter Six. Grave Goods: The Kings’ Four Bodies 165
Embalming Sovereignty / Reanimating the Body / Exhuming Tyrants /
Vital Poetics
Afterword. The Artifactual Form 193
Notes 207 Works Cited 227
Index 253
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Illustrations
Engraving of Stuart medals from Vetusta Monumenta
(Volume 1, Plate 55, 1739) 78
Engraving of the warrant for Charles I from Vetusta Monumenta
(Volume 2, Plate 6, 1750) 108
Engraving of brass trumpets and a shield from Vetusta Monumenta
(Volume 2, Plate 20, 1763) 136
Engraving of the exhumation of Edward IV from Vetusta Monumenta
(Volume 3, Plate 7, 1790) 164
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Acknowledgments
Although I didn’t know it at the time, I began writing Artifacts as a doctoral
student in 2003. This book would not exist without Devoney Looser and
Noah Heringman, who have supported me and my work for more than fif-
teen years now. The best parts of this book will always be theirs.
I have taken what has felt like an unusually long time to finish writing my
first book. I’m grateful for the many, many people who have indulged my
antiquarian foibles while reminding me about the things that matter most.
Marilyn Francus first introduced me to eighteenth-century England, and I’m
thankful for the opportunities we’ve had ever since to find each other there
again. At the University of Missouri–Columbia, Jason Arthur, Nicky Beer,
Leigh Dillard, Michael Kardos, Karen Laird, Elizabeth Langemak, Catherine
Pierce, Angela Rehbein, and Zak Watson—as well as Samuel Cohen, Andrew
Hoberek, and the George Justice—inspired me to be a better thinker, reader,
writer, and friend. When I was a postdoctoral fellow at the Georgia Institute
of Technology, Aaron Santesso asked me a lot of important questions, and
James Mulholland helped me to find the right answers.
Artifacts would not have been possible to complete without the advocacy
of our faculty union at Wright State University. I’ve also benefited from the
kindnesses of my brilliant colleagues in the Department of English Language
and Literatures. I thank Barry Milligan for reading and responding to parts
of my manuscript. I thank Lars Söderlund for the Latour Summer Seminar
and so much more. I’m also grateful to Deb Crusan, Christopher DeWeese,
Erin Flanagan, Hope Jennings, Lynette Jones, Carol Mejia LaPerle, Annette
Oxindine, Alpana Sharma, and Kelli Zaytoun for letting me think along with
them over the years.
In the wilds of Ohio, David Brewer, Sandra Macpherson, Roxann Wheeler,
and Greg Anderson generously read parts of my manuscript and helped me
to see better ways forward. In the field at large, I’ve learned a lot from con-
versations with Rebecca Barr, Andrew Burkett, Timothy Campbell, Al Cop-
pola, Helen Deutsch, Joe Drury, Michael Gavin, Eric Gidal, Anne Greenfield,
Collin Jennings, Steve Karian, Heather Keenleyside, Jess Keiser, Jonathan
Kramnick, Jayne Lewis, Jack Lynch, Tina Lupton, Ruth Mack, Robert Mark-
ley, Adam Potkay, Matthew Reeve, Courtney Weiss Smith, Rivka Swenson,