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TARA HAMLING: So my name is Tara Hamling. I'm a reader in Early Modern Studies at the University of Birmingham. And I study material culture and social and cultural history.

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So I study history through objects. And what I'm hoping to demonstrate is how we can use objects as evidence for the study of the Early Modern period.

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And we've selected a range of objects that are of different materials, of different sizes, and speak to different themes in the study of Early Modern history.

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And I want to talk you through how you can use these objects as evidence, treating the material qualities of the objects in the first instance, thinking about their form, their size, their impact, the quality

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of workmanship, working through, as systematically as possible, those sorts of questions that would lead to description before moving on to interpretation and how we might re-situate these objects back

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in their original contexts: their original physical context, as well as the kind of environmental context, and indeed how they're used and function within society. So the term "material culture" is

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used to refer to a broad range of items, objects: but not just objects. It can also refer to the material environment more broadly, the built environment.

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It can even refer to the use of things in particular spaces. For our purposes, though, I think we want to think about material culture a little bit more narrowly in terms of object-based study:

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so how we can use objects, again, as evidence to interrogate the past, instead of sort of treating objects as a supplement to other kinds of source material

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like documents and sort of established history, to think about how we can construct our interpretation through the process of object-based analysis.

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So treating the objects first, then thinking about what they can tell us about the period. Because you see an object, you immediately relate to that object.

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You think about other objects that you're familiar with and how you would use them. So in a way, objects take you immediately to the kinds of uses and functions

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that you can relate to. But it's important to kind of pause and just think about the gulf between your experience and people in the Early Modern period.

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So that's where that kind of systematic approach to objects: first ascertaining their material properties and the kind of effect that has on you, and sort of pausing and then putting that

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into the context of the Early Modern period. So objects can certainly kind of really assist in the process of understanding how people dealt with their environment,

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thought about their environment, moved in their environment. Objects can also tell us about identity. And I that's where objects give us a different glimpse into the past than content in documents

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can tell you. Because you get a sense of people's interaction with things. And that takes us into the everyday life of the period.

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And if you're interested in social and cultural history, then objects are really good and direct route into that. So there are lots of challenges with working with objects as evidence for the study of history.

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And one of the challenges is first in kind of accessing your objects. So that's where, wherever possible, you want to be able to see the objects in the flesh.

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You can use reproductions to start the analysis. But it's really, really valuable to be able to engage with objects directly. So that involves building up a relationship with curators

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and particular collections in order to get access to be able to view the objects at first hand. And it's also about having conversations with curators to understand the material qualities of those objects,

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because you can't possibly be an expert on how objects are constructed or whether the quality is good or mediocre. So it's really important to understand as much as you can learn from curators

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and to be guided in your analysis by what's already known about those objects. But there's also a real benefit to just engaging with objects directly: having a kind of encounter

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with an object. And in doing that, it's important to work through, as far as possible, a kind of systematic process of asking particular questions and thinking

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about the intrinsic nature of the object. And that involves a whole range of different aspects. I have a crib sheet that I work through to make sure that I cover every aspect of a particular object's

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materiality. So here we are. We're in the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust's strongrooms where they keep the objects that are not on display.

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And we have a collection of Early Modern objects in front of us to talk about: so ranging from ceramic items, metalwares, some wooden painted items, and some textile items.

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So we're going to start by comparing these two items. So we have a pewter spoon and then a set of banqueting trenchers with a case. So both of these items relate to dining

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and the complexities of dining in the Early Modern period. So I'm going to start by being disciplined and not jumping to that, but think, first of all, about the form and materials of the items.

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So if we start with this spoon, which I'm going to pick up very carefully in the centre, one of the things that you notice straight away, we can see it's a spoon. You say what you see.

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It's definitely a spoon. But it does have a different shape to spoons that we're familiar with today. It has a fairly shallow main spoon.

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And then as you move along the shaft, it's interestingly shaped. It's got a sort of long, thin stem. And there's no particular end.

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It just stops at the end. So it's not a particularly high status spoon, because you would expect a higher status spoon to have some sort of decoration

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at the end of the item. And that serves a function as well. It stops the spoon from tipping when it's resting against something.

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And the shallow bowl area, I can see when I look at it in the light, it looks like there's some kind of marking in the centre. But it's very, very worn.

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And if I turn it over, we might expect to see some markings on the back. But there's nothing that I can see in this light. So that's, again, indicating that this is not

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a spoon of very high status. This is a practical spoon, a utilitarian spoon. And this kind of spoon could be readily carried around. So people would carry their spoons with them

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when they go out dining. You might dine away from home. So it's handy to have a spoon. Spoons are the main item of cutlery.

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You have a spoon and a knife. And you have your own personal items. And the fact that spoons were carried around and used in this way probably explains why so many spoons turn up

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in archaeological excavations. We've got a lot of "found" spoons. So this is a nice item, but it's an everyday item: the kind of thing that an average person

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would use on a daily basis. So I'm going to pop that one down again. Carefully. So that was really interesting.

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Handling the item gave me a different sense of how the object works and kind of sense that it could be carried around readily. If we move to these items.

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This is the other end of the spectrum of kind of function and use. So let's see here this set of roundels that are highly, highly decorated.

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They have decoration around the outside: ornate decoration. I can see knotwork. I can see floral decoration. And I can see, in the centre of each of these roundels,

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a little inscription. And it really is very little. It's hard to make out. You'd have to really focus in on these with a magnifying glass.

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So it's difficult to read anyway, because it's in Early Modern script. But it's also incredibly small. So that tells us a little bit about how close you'd

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have to look at this item. So that's interesting. We might think about that a little bit more in a minute. Again, the quality of the decoration here,

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this surface decoration is leaping out at me. Originally, the colours would have been very, very vibrant. They're still actually very vibrant. And there's a variety of decoration.

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So it's the combination of this knotwork, the floral decoration, the inscription. And they all sit together in an overall composition. So the design has been really thought through.

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And I can see here with this in the centre, there's also a skull, which jumps out across all of these items. It's the one sort of obvious symbol here.

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So skulls, immediately we think of death. We think of the memento mori tradition. And if we were to engage with the inscription, these inscriptions are all on a spiritual subject:

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so moral and spiritual subjects, biblical. And so we get a sense of these objects as being quite serious. And yet, what we know about these objects from how they were used in the late 16th, early 17th century

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is that they are for entertaining. They're for sociability. And they're for kind of extreme sociability: sort of indulgence in sweet meats and sweet treats, in a particular kind of dining

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known as a "banqueting course." So banquets: we think of a banquet as a big feast. But in the Early Modern period, a banquet was a standalone dessert course of spicy wines

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and sweet wines and sugary items. And if I can pick one of these up very carefully, it's incredibly thin. It's incredibly light.

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And I'm going to just turn it over. It has a completely blank background. And actually, I can't see any staining. This looks pristine.

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Actually, this would be the surface that a sweet treat would be served on. So the way that these objects work is that you have your sweet treat

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positioned in the middle of your banqueting trencher. Once you've eaten your sweet treat, you turn it over. You flip it over. You admire the decoration.

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And it deserves admiration. And then you read the inscription that's been revealed to you. And in this instance, these inscriptions

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are on biblical subjects. You might read this out as part of after-dinner or dessert conversation. You would perform, perhaps, the way that you

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flip this over and read it out. You might recognise the nature of the text and identify it. So it seems that, in some ways, these inscriptions work in tension with the nature of the event

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that they're designed for, which is about indulgence in treats. But then you're reminded, as you turned your trencher over, of the importance of your soul and the importance of restraining yourself from too much worldly indulgence

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for the purposes of life everlasting. So another thing that we might think about in comparing these items: they both relate to dining: but we have here a single item that was always a single item, not

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part of a collection. Whereas here, we have a collection. And it still has its original box. So we need to think about each of these individual banqueting

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trenchers as part of a collection of eight and the fact that they still have their box that they were originally kept in. So there is a sense from these trenchers

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that, while they would have been used as part of a set in the context of a banquet, they're also kept in storage part of the time. The box is part of the way that the objects are kept together

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as a set. The box itself is beautifully decorated. I'm just going to have a look at the sides. Yeah, so even around the outside of the box,

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you've got those various grooves which adds to the sense of the decoration of the box. There's little circular punctures on the top of the box, as well.

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So this, in itself, is meant to be admired. So perhaps one of the reasons why these trenchers survive in such excellent condition - and they really are in superb condition

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- is because they've spent most of their life stored away in this box, and perhaps taken out to be enjoyed just on very few occasions. So next I'm going to talk about this huge jug here

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in front of me. And immediately, we notice the shape of the jug, the size of the jug. This is a sizable item.

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And also, its shape: it's incredibly rounded. You can see on the other side here, this wonderful face. Again, that leaps out at you, this bearded man face. And then there's decoration that's

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been pressed into this ceramic, this pottery item. So there's a circular motif in the centre. And I can see floral motifs pressed here. On the back, we have the large handle

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to support what I think is going to be quite a weighty jug. I'm going to just pick it up and see. Oh, yeah. It does have some weight to it.

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That's a heavy item. Stand it down again. I can see at the base of the handle, there's some pressed marks, just to add to the ornamentation.

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These look like they've been pressed in by hand. And then the overall effect of this particular pottery, this stoneware, is a sort of mottled quality. So it looks almost as if it's got leather pressed into it.

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It's a sort of uneven surface. And it sort of moves from brown to dark brown to black in places, and light brown. So it's got a sort of mottled effect.

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So I can see that it's got quite a large opening at the top. There's nothing: no stopper in place. And I'm just going to turn it slightly so we can look at this fantastic face.

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So this face is common across all of these sorts of jugs. They're known as "Bartmann jugs," sometimes as "Bellarmines." And it's important that we've got this one

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to talk about today. But it's just one of several of these items. Here in this collection, I think there are around 15 to 20 of these items just in this collection.

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And Bartmann jugs are very common in the 16th and 17th century: right across the 16th and 17th century. They're produced in Germany and then exported

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throughout Europe. And they serve to transport and hold all kinds of liquids. So this bulbous shape that we can see can store a lot of liquid.

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And this is a large Bartmann that would store a quantity of liquid. And it could be any kind of liquid. So they're sometimes thought of as drinking jugs that might

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well have held wine or beer. But they are also used to transport metals, like mercury. They're incredibly useful storage items. But very, very common.

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There are a lot of them surviving. And they survive in all different shapes and sizes. So they always have this bulbous shape, but with different decoration.

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But the important point is they come in different sizes: so small Bartmanns, large Bartmanns. What always characterises them is this face: this bearded face.

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And that's how we identify them as Bartmann. So they're also found in quantities in shards on the banks of the Thames where they were clearly just used in an everyday basis,

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again for transporting drinks from place to place, and then just disposed of. So this is great. This is an intact Bartmann.

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We have a really good, almost perfect condition Bartmann. You get a sense of its whole form and design. And the form and design, I think, is what's so interesting about these, because although they're

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an everyday item, incredibly common, incredibly well used in everyday life, some of them took on a sort of afterlife which gave them a whole load of new meanings.

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And it's all connected with this face and with this bulbous shape. And that's where they're reused, appropriated, as witch bottles. So if we think about the 16th- and the 17th-century belief

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in the supernatural, particularly the belief in the ability of supernatural spirits and malevolent spirits to harm you from afar: the idea that somebody might be able to cast a charm on you,

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indirectly: how would you protect yourself from such a charm? How would you attempt to throw off the various symptoms that you'd developed as a result of the charm?

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Well, one answer was to make a witch bottle. There's very little evidence prior to the latest 17th century of how witch bottles were made. But there is an abundance of material objects

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that have survived that tell us about witch bottles. So you would take, almost always, a Bartmann jug, because they lent themselves to the purpose so well.

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You would fill your Bartmann jug with a range of ingredients, including urine: your own urine if you were the one afflicted: your nails: fingernails, toenails: some mercury if you had it, or some kind of metal ingredient.

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Nails: now, this is an important ingredient: as in pins, nails that could sometimes be bent. And these were supposed to harm the witch that had cast this charm on you.

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The idea being that these sharp metal objects contained in the recipe, in the ingredients, would cause extreme pain to the witch that had cast the spell on you.

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So ideally, that would be connected to the urine. It would afflict the witch to no longer be able to pass water. So she would then remove the charm. And I'm talking about "she," because in most cases: not all,

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but in most cases: these sorts of vindictive malevolent charms were thought to be cast by women. So once you'd made your witch bottle with all these ingredients, you would then

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warm it next to the fire and then keep it warm for as long as possible in order to magnify the effects of the spell: the counter spell, effectively.

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And one way that you might keep it warm for as long as possible is to bury it within the hearth area, so close to the fire. Keep it warm. This is a long-term solution, which

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is why they sometimes turn up in archaeological excavations still intact, because they've been buried in the ground. So the Bartmann jug is that fascinating kind of a type of object that moves from everyday use,

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having kind of a practical, utilitarian use: a common object: to something that, when transformed, when turned to a new use in relation to belief in the supernatural in the 16th, 17th century, it takes

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on all these other meanings about protection from evil spirits and particularly the desire to protect yourself from harm in your home. So I think that the Bartmann jug is

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a great example of a belief in magic and the supernatural. But ultimately, it's that grimacing, bearded face that I think lends itself to its use as a witch bottle. It sort of, in itself, has that sort

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of grotesque, scary impression that helped deflect the effects of the witch's charm. So now we move on to a smaller object. So I can see immediately that this is a ring.

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I need to pick it up to have a good look at it, though. And, again, weight is going to be important. OK so it's got a decent weight to it. It's also got quite a large circumference.

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So this suggests to me that this is a ring worn by a man. And, again, you might want to question how it's worn. It's, even on a man, probably going to be on a thumb rather than a finger: certainly not a little finger.

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And I can also see on the main area here, I can see some initials. I can see an H and what looks like an I, but in the Early Modern period is a J. Jewellery in the Early

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Modern period is worn by both men and women. And I think this item is certainly the kind of item worn by a man. So rings, obviously, have the same significance

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in the Early Modern period as today. They demonstrated commitment between a couple. But they also demonstrated commitment outside of marriage. So they could indicate a commitment

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in terms of authority or a commitment within a given institution: so the importance of rings, for example, in the church or in a civic context. So a lot of Jewellery in the Early Modern period

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has that extra layer of symbolism to do with commitment between individuals or commitments between an individual and a particular office or an individual and the state.

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So we're going to talk about two textile items now. And I've got the first one in front of me. I've been given permission to handle other objects from the collection today.

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But this is not an object that I'm going to handle because textile items are incredibly fragile. And they do present particular challenges for curators in keeping and storing and preserving these items.

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And they also present challenges for us in studying them, partly because we can't handle them. We can only really look at them. So this one has been arranged very carefully for us

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so we get a sense of how it would have looked as it was worn originally. It's obviously, again, so say what you see: you can see immediately it's headwear.

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And it's still an amazingly bright white, plain white. It's fairly crisp in its colour. So that's actually been looked after incredibly well, because a lot of the way that this object would have

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communicated in its original context when worn would have been through its clean, white appearance. That ability to get your linens really crisply white

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was perceived as somebody who is pure, industrious, and a good, moral, upright citizen. So that, again, suggests to us the connection between the form of the object and how and where it was worn.

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It's worn by a woman. It's kind of a hood or a sort of long headwear that would cover a woman's head and also her hair. So it's an indication of modesty.

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We don't tend to wear headwear these days. It's quite rare: maybe just woolly hats in cold weather. But in the Early Modern context, everybody wore headwear all of the time.

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And the way that you would recognise and understand the person's status in life would be through what they were wearing. That would be an immediate response.

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And headwear was really, really key to this. So only unmarried women wore their hair loose. Once you were married, you wore your hair up and you covered it in public with a hood

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like this, or a little cap. So this one is plain in its main decoration. You can see the linen. You can see the crisp, white linen.

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But it's adorned with this very delicate lacework, which runs all the way around the front of the hood and then down the side. So I can see at the back here that these strips of lace run

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all the way down from a centre point at the back of the head here, all the way down to join up with this border. So it's not just around the edge. It's also an integral part of the design of the hood.

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And it also runs down the back and then divides into three pieces and, again, repeats on the other side. So there is more decoration than is needed here. There's more adornment than is needed.

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You could just have that centre piece. You could just have the bit at the border. The fact that it's worked into the piece tells us, again, about status.

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So, again, this suggests a woman of some status. It's not heavily embroidered, but that's not the design of this piece. This is about making a statement about modesty and chastity

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and, again, industry and your good housekeeping skills. So I think that this is how this would have been appreciated. So we're thinking a woman of probably upper-middling status. When wearing this out in public in the day,

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perhaps with more colourful outerwear and clothing, it would certainly stand out. And it would be appreciated for its lack of colour. So we're going to have a look now at whether there's

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any indication of wear and tear. This looks like it's being kept in incredibly good condition. So perhaps not worn that often. There's a little bit of marking on the back here.

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But if I look towards the front, this looks a little bit crumpled the way it's sitting on the top of the head here. I can see just a few little markings coming down

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the side here, which perhaps suggests that the front was pinned back, turned back, so that it would have framed the face at a higher point. That kind of makes sense given the ruffles I

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can see here and that mark. So once it's turned back, you then have more of the woman's face on view and more of the forehead, which is probably how it would

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originally have been seen. So now we move to the second of our two textile items. And this in front of me, which we've been able to get rolled out, is just the most amazing impact:

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visual impact. So it's a large object. I can see from the detail here that this is woven. So we've got a tapestry covering.

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It's got a large border running around the outside. And then it's got quite intricate decoration in the centre. So I can say immediately that the colour is hitting me.

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The form of the decoration is hitting me. There's a lot going on in this piece of woven textile decoration. So I can see fruit in the border and a kind

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of rolling floral foliate decoration, motif. And then in the centre, more floral decoration within a freeze, a centrepiece, which is contained in circular cartouches.

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So I can see vases of flowers. And I can see fruit trees. So this is proclaiming to me the abundance of fruit and flora. So what would an item like this have been used for?

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So we've looked at a piece of Early Modern headgear, a piece of clothing. But this is an item that would clothe the home. So as well as showing off your status through your clothing,

00:28:26.530 - 00:28:37.320

you would also show your status through the way that you dressed your domestic context, your domestic furnishings. And this is an item that would sit on top of a table.

00:28:37.320 - 00:28:49.670

So you would have items like this woven or embroidered or maybe linen covering pretty much every item of furniture within the home, in a wealthy home, which is clearly where this has come from.

00:28:49.670 - 00:28:59.430

So if we think of this as actually sitting on top of a table, it's quite a bulky item to sit on top of a table. It would sit on top of a wooden item.

00:28:59.430 - 00:29:15.990

And it proclaims the fertility, the profusion of fruits and flora that home represents: sort of prosperity and fertility of home. And if you imagine using this on a table

00:29:15.990 - 00:29:28.110

that you might use for dining or, again, social entertainments, then this is a statement very much about status, about wealth, and also about appropriate decoration

00:29:28.110 - 00:29:37.920

for viewing in the home. So another object that we've already had a look at - and I'm seeing parallels between the two - are the banqueting roundels that had

00:29:37.920 - 00:29:52.410

a lot of the same decoration: that same emphasis on the floral decoration and the same sort of borders. And I'm also looking at these vases of flowers here. Now, I've seen this sort of decoration

00:29:52.410 - 00:30:06.750

within wall painting of around about 1600, 1610, maybe 1620. So I think that we can probably date this table carpet to that sort of period around 1610, 1620, because of the nature of the decoration.

00:30:06.750 - 00:30:17.850

And also, you get that sense of the interplay of different surfaces and materials within the home. You might have a table carpet like this with your banqueting trenchers being used on it.

00:30:17.850 - 00:30:26.910

And you could have that kind of wall decoration as a backdrop to those kinds of activities. So thinking about how Early Modern people in their domestic environment were actually

00:30:26.910 - 00:30:38.820

exposed to a profusion of imagery and the links between different items through that imagery. It's actually quite special to be able to see this item, because textiles don't survive very well.

00:30:38.820 - 00:30:51.780

While textiles were ubiquitous, abundant in the Early Modern period, very few survive in this kind of condition. Where they do survive, they usually patch. And I can see evidence of some work done here to sort of just

00:30:51.780 - 00:31:02.070

hold it together to preserve it. But there's all kinds of pressures on textiles for curators and conservators because they are so fragile and they

00:31:02.070 - 00:31:15.370

are so susceptible to lighting and temperature conditions. So to be able to see this rolled out as it would have appeared in the Early Modern period is a real opportunity.

00:31:15.370 - 00:31:28.890

And I suppose the thing to think about when you're engaging with objects through reproductions, through digital images, or even 3D images, is just to try and think about how they would have been experienced originally: the scale,

00:31:28.890 - 00:31:38.810

the impact that colour and dimensions have on you. And sometimes it's OK to be impressed by an item because that was how they were intended to be experienced at the time.

00:31:38.810 - 00:31:55.350

This item certainly does make an impression. And that does tell us a little bit about how it was intended to make an impact at the time. So here we are with an object that's in its period setting.

00:31:55.350 - 00:32:05.900

So we need to kind of try and cancel out some of that sense of place and just address the object itself. So, again, the first thing to do is to think about, what is it? Say what you see.

00:32:05.900 - 00:32:17.660

So it's obviously an armchair. But we can see that, already, it's a very ornate armchair. It's got an awful lot of decoration on the back. It's got a large border going around the back panel.

00:32:17.660 - 00:32:28.610

It's got arms, and it's got turned legs. You can see immediately some wear to the bottom where it's being worn in the past. So thinking about condition, immediately you

00:32:28.610 - 00:32:39.050

can see some areas are in better condition than others. The seat itself is well-worn. I can see it's got grooves in it. It's also, I can see, the construction here

00:32:39.050 - 00:32:46.760

with some pegs. Notice immediately, as well, there's additional decoration running along the frieze under the seat.

00:32:46.760 - 00:32:59.330

Again, turned posts supporting the arms. I can't see around the back of the chair at the moment. But ideally, you would want to do that if you have permission to be able to look around the back to see evidence of repair,

00:32:59.330 - 00:33:07.550

replacements. With wooden furniture, it's very often adapted over time. You don't tend to get a wooden object hasn't been altered, particularly

00:33:07.550 - 00:33:17.270

in the later sort of Victorian period. So you want to assess in more detail the extent to which this is an original chair and the extent to which this has been adapted over time.

00:33:17.270 - 00:33:29.930

But immediately, the impression is of high status object. So the fact that there are arms in the Early Modern context suggests this is a chair of some status. And all of that decoration in the background

00:33:29.930 - 00:33:37.880

is what's really screaming out at me. So it tells me that this is a chair of some status. This crest at the top is additional. It's not necessary.

00:33:37.880 - 00:33:47.470

It's additional ornamentation. And, again, the wide border. All of this is not necessary to the function of the chair. It's there to be seen when someone's not sitting in it.

00:33:47.470 - 00:33:56.090

Because, obviously, if someone's sitting in it, you can't see all of that lovely decoration. So we can imagine it in a context where it's sort of proclaiming status:

00:33:56.090 - 00:34:04.910

the status of the owner, whether that's in a civic context or a domestic context, as is likely with this chair, or even in a church. So these sorts of chairs proclaim

00:34:04.910 - 00:34:14.880

the status of their owners, or their users, even when they're not present. So that tells us quite a lot about how chairs articulate status in the Early Modern period.

00:34:14.880 - 00:34:27.050

Well, I mean the workmanship here is really, really high status. I mean, again, this is strapwork decoration in the border, which is a very ornate and fashionable decoration of the early part

00:34:27.050 - 00:34:34.220

of the 17th century. So that helps us get a sense of date. And then we've got this sort of foliate decoration in the back panel.

00:34:34.220 - 00:34:45.110

Again, this is carved into the chair. So it may have been constructed as a separate panel. I can't see evidence of that. But in any case, it's involving having

00:34:45.110 - 00:34:54.710

to carve into the chair, which is a high level of skill. So chairs are a relatively new thing in the Early Modern period. So most people would sit on a stool look I'm sitting on now.

00:34:54.710 - 00:35:03.440

In fact, you didn't sit that often at all. Standing was the norm. So sitting immediately kind of is a particular context in the Early Modern period.

00:35:03.440 - 00:35:14.940

You would send for a stool if you had a guest come. A chair like this, again, is all about status. It's suggesting a privileged status: having a chair that's not just a stool,

00:35:14.940 - 00:35:23.760

but with a back rest and armrests. Again, it's a very sturdy item. It's been carefully constructed. It would take time.

00:35:23.760 - 00:35:30.320

It's not just the level of workmanship with the decoration, it's just the kind of intrinsic quality of the chair as it's been put together.

00:35:30.320 - 00:35:42.020

So all of that indicates to me that this is likely a master of a household, possibly somebody with civic office, or somebody with important status in the local community:

00:35:42.020 - 00:35:51.380

so in a church setting, maybe a church warden. So a chair like this would denote that status. It would cost quite a bit of money. And then, as I say, it's designed

00:35:51.380 - 00:36:04.430

to be seen when not in use as much as in use. So there's always that sense of the person not sitting there. You can kind of imagine them. But, yes, certainly somebody of status and probably a man.

00:36:04.430 - 00:36:19.520

So in these sorts of settings, it's incredibly difficult. So when you're experiencing a chair in a period setting, sometimes the chairs have been brought in specifically to furnish a particular exhibition or a period room.

00:36:19.520 - 00:36:31.670

So you would have to make more enquiries of the collections team to find out where the chair originated from. It's important, in a way, to not get engaged too much with the biography

00:36:31.670 - 00:36:41.480

at the point of description. The biography of the chair you can reconstruct later through provenance, where it's known. But movable items: smaller items, especially:

00:36:41.480 - 00:36:50.960

tend not to keep their provenance. So, again, it's hard to connect them with a particular place. However, in this context, the setting feels quite appropriate.

00:36:50.960 - 00:37:04.090

Perhaps a chair like this would be less next to a fireplace, perhaps more in the setting of a parlour with a table and stools, and then a single chair to mark out the status of the householder.

00:37:09.740 - 00:37:20.140

ROSALYN SKLAR: So here at the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust, we care for a large and internationally significant collection, archive collection, library collection, and museum collection.

00:37:20.140 - 00:37:30.020

Our archive collection comprises over a million documents that range in date from the 12th century right up to the modern day. And we also care for the RSC's theatre archive.

00:37:30.020 - 00:37:40.680

Our library collection comprises just over 50,000 books, and our museum collection around about 7,000 objects. So as a researcher, there's several ways that you can access our collections.

00:37:40.680 - 00:37:51.800

One of the best things to do is to start by viewing our website, www.shakespeare.org.uk, where you can find our online collection. But you can also search a range of fantastic blogs

00:37:51.800 - 00:38:05.230

and online exhibitions that really give you an indication of the scope of the collection. It's also worth contacting us in the collections department (and our email address is available on the website)

00:38:05.230 - 00:38:14.950

with any inquiries and questions you have about the collection. Once you visit the site itself, we care for five historic properties in and around Stratford that are all furnished with items

00:38:14.950 - 00:38:24.410

mainly from the museum collection: furniture and decorative art. And we also have a long running exhibition in the Shakespeare centre itself.

00:38:24.410 - 00:38:38.350

We also run a whole range of events, talks, and after-hours events that are open to the public. You can also visit our reading room, which is open four days a week and on Saturday mornings, to explore the archive further

00:38:38.350 - 00:38:45.510

and the library collection. And you can make special requests to view the museum collection itself.