Bejewelled: the Male Body and Adornment in Early Modern Britain

Principal investigator: Liam
Level: PhD level research

Natasha is looking at men in Britain from the period 1509 (beginning of the reign of Henry VIII) until the end of James I’s reign in 1625 and exploring the significance of jewels that they wore, owned and circulated. Trying to move away from notions of jewellery that sees it as trifles of adornment, I want to show how these small-scale objects reflected ideas of magnificence, lineage, and wealth, as well as being signifiers of social bonds and networks of reciprocity. I am interested not only in looking at the royal bodies of Henry VIII and James I but courtiers, such as Robert Dudley, merchants, including Thomas Gresham, and also those lower down the social scale. By using objects within the collection of the British Museum, and those that have been declared as Treasure under the 1996 Treasure Act I want to demonstrate how jewels were equally as important for men across all social levels. While intrinsically these objects were deemed valuable, their emotional worth is what I wish to unlock. 

Audit data

• Created: 14 years ago
• Created by: D P