The Pocket: A Hidden History of Women’s Lives, 1660–1900

Product Description

A New York Times Best Art Book of 2019

“A riveting book . . . few stones are left unturned.”—Roberta Smith’s “Top Art Books of 2019,”
The New York Times

This fascinating and enlightening study of the tie-on pocket combines materiality and gender to provide new insight into the social history of women’s everyday lives—from duchesses and country gentry to prostitutes and washerwomen—and to explore their consumption practices, sociability, mobility, privacy, and identity. A wealth of evidence reveals unexpected facets of the past, bringing women’s stories into intimate focus.
 
“What particularly interests Burman and Fennetaux is the way in which women of all classes have historically used these tie-on pockets as a supplementary body part to help them negotiate their way through a world that was not built to suit them.”—Kathryn Hughes, 
The Guardian
 

 
“A brilliant book.”—Ulinka Rublack,
Times Literary Supplement

Review
“What particularly interests Burman and Fennetaux is the way in which women of all classes have historically used these tie-on pockets as a supplementary body part to help them negotiate their way through a world that was not built to suit them.”—Kathryn Hughes,
Guardian

“In this riveting book, the authors take advantage of the pockets’ frequent survival in textile museums, private collections and family holdings across Britain, tracing their presence in art, literature, political satire, domestic organization and court records.”—Roberta Smith,
New York Times “Best Art Books of 2019”
 
About the Author

Barbara Burman is an independent scholar, and 
Ariane Fennetaux is associate professor of eighteenth-century history at the Université de Paris.