11 - Two Men’s Leather Letter Cases

Summary

This chapter examines three leather letter cases, small, plain personal objects, similar to men’s wallets, the significance of which has been previously overlooked in museum collections. Despite their limited embellishments, small size, and low-status material, these letter cases prove to be extremely effective in providing us with insights into some of the key social and economic developments of the eighteenth century. The cases, through the biographies of their owners, provide tangible links to several aspects of eighteenth-century commerce: the transatlantic slave trade; the growth of the mercantile elite and their commercial networks within the consumer revolution; and the development of manufacturing and retail networks in English towns. Comparing the cases’ material details and composition with other extant examples, this chapter places them within the context of contemporary print culture, including the appearance of cases on trade cards, in novels, criminal trials, and accounts of slave trade voyages. These letter cases were acquired and carried by their owners not just as a means of transporting bills of exchange, letters, and sometimes notebooks, but also as a way of establishing and signaling to contemporaries mercantile-class identity and rising social status.