Graham, AB; (2017) Connoisseurship, Consumption, Company and James Brydges, first Duke of Chandos, 1700-15. Huntington Library Quarterly , 80 (4) pp. 539-557.

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Abstract

As a public official and private collector between 1702 and 1713, James Brydges (later first Duke of Chandos) occupied two distinct but mutually reinforcing worlds. Previous studies of his collecting and connoisseurship have suggested that the process fed off existing personal connexions and contacts, but close attention to his conduct suggests that they also fed back into these connexions, helping to reinforce the private networks that Brydges used to carry out public business. This applied even to relatively mundane cultural artefacts, especially wine, and was amplified even further by the social context or company in which these items were consumed, which offered opportunities to articulate personal connexions and mutual obligations. This often produced a net benefit for the public service, suggesting that the process of state formation, as well as the nature of connoisseurship, collecting, consumption and company in this period, would benefit from fundamental reassessment.

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