The Lustrous Trade: Material Culture and the History of Sculpture in England and Italy, c.1700-c.1860

In recent years, the Anglo-Italian sphere of artistic exchange in relation to painting has been an increasingly productive area of research. Here, contributors shift the focus onto the two countries’ equally significant sculpture trade. This volume of selected essays by economic and social historians and historians of material culture and art investigates the varied roles and functions of sculpture and the ways in which this particular cultural exchange was manifested. Issues of business and the markets for sculpture are highlighted, both in the context of producers of “high”art and in the wider market of religious, garden and decorative sculpture.