Preserving nature: domestic thrift and techniques of conservation in early modern England.

Simon Werrett

doi:10.1098/rsnr.2021.0029

Abstract

Against an assumption that conservation practices only became ‘scientific’ in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, this essay shows how, on the contrary, preservation techniques in early modern England were an inspiration for new forms of scientific inquiry and knowledge. Following the framework of ‘thrifty science’, the essay demonstrates how the thrifty value of making use and extending the life of goods encouraged a variety of preservation practices, which some scholars identified as valuable resources for a new experimental philosophy. In practice, preserving techniques crossed between domestic, experimental and academic sites. Since ‘thrifty science’ included the preservation of human and non-human ‘bodies’, the essay argues that an appreciation of early modern conservation necessitates an interdisciplinary approach.

Highlights

Prior to the mid-nineteenth century, broken chinaware could be repaired with rivets, a skilled procedure in which heated staples were inserted into holes in the pieces of a bowl or plate and allowed to cool, drawing the sections together to seal the crack
Following the framework of ‘thrifty science’, the essay demonstrates how the thrifty value of making use and extending the life of goods encouraged a variety of preservation practices, which some scholars identified as valuable resources for a new experimental philosophy
Extending the framework of my recent book Thrifty science to the history of conservation, this essay argues that practices of repair and preservation were by no means unscientific prior to the second half of the nineteenth century, at least in the context of seventeenthcentury England.[2]

Summary

Published online

PRESERVING NATURE: DOMESTIC THRIFT AND TECHNIQUES OF CONSERVATION IN EARLY MODERN ENGLAND by SIMON WERRETT*. Against an assumption that conservation practices only became ‘scientific’ in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, this essay shows how, on the contrary, preservation techniques in early modern England were an inspiration for new forms of scientific inquiry and knowledge. Following the framework of ‘thrifty science’, the essay demonstrates how the thrifty value of making use and extending the life of goods encouraged a variety of preservation practices, which some scholars identified as valuable resources for a new experimental philosophy. Preserving techniques crossed between domestic, experimental and academic sites. Since ‘thrifty science’ included the preservation of human and non-human ‘bodies’, the essay argues that an appreciation of early modern conservation necessitates an interdisciplinary approach

INTRODUCTION

THE SCIENCE OF THRIFT

PRESERVING BODIES

THE TECHNIQUES OF PRESERVATION

CONCLUSION