Sir Thomas Samwell and his friends

Given the widespread misgivings in early eighteenth-century England about the moral implications of commercial prosperity, the initial reluctance of patrons to have themselves portrayed in circumstances of affluent refinement should hardly strike us as unexpected. But the very fact that the 1720s saw the gradual emergence of an imagery which spoke in...

Like other forms of luxury associated with court life and display, ownership of black pages and body servants became increasingly available...