Contextualising Title Pages by Material Culture: Typography & List of Rarities A Case Study Don Saltero’s Coffeehouse Catalogues, 1729 – 1795.

Abstract

Using A Catalogue of the Rarities to Be Seen at Don Saltero’s Coffeehouse in Chelsea. To Which Is Added, a Compleat List of the Donors Thereof - published in London, England between 1729 and 1795, this case study contextualises the catalogue’s title pages through a change over time examination of the typography and then listed of rarities through strategies from material culture to understand better the intersecting identities floating around the public sphere. What was reflected were characteristics of religion, nationhood, and gender. Don Saltero’s rarities catalogues were a topic of discussion for patrons of Don Saltero’s coffeehouse in London. Catalogues analysed in this research existed in the coffee house environment, private homes, and wherever these catalogues ended up. The catalogues added legitimacy to the collections they accompanied and did so by placing objects within various Enlightenment discussions and tying the listed objects to contemporary cultural knowledge. Additionally, the object’s descriptions allowed spectators and readers to interact with the ‘science’ of the emerging field of natural history. They presented catalogues in a way that emulated emerging scientific works within the academic sphere of the natural world. The sources used here gained further fame and legitimacy through the connection to well-known naturalist Sir Hans Sloane, a physician to the royal family, president of the Royal Society, and founder of the British Museum. Owning rarity collections was often an elite enterprise, but a collection’s stories were deliberately pitched to a much broader audience offering access to the collections and the ideas they represented. Thus, these catalogues add significance to their collections by expanding public discourse on objects known as rarities.