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Pencils, a sketchbook, cake, yards of stolen ribbon, thimbles, snuff boxes, a picture of a lover, two live ducks: these are just some of the fascinating things carried by women and girls in their tie-on pockets, an essential accessory throughout the 18th and 19th centuries.  This first book-length study of the tie-on pocket combines materiality  and gender to provide new insight into the social history of women’s  everyday lives—from duchesses and country gentry to prostitutes and  washerwomen—and explore their consumption practices, work, sociability,  mobility, privacy, and identity. The authors draw on an unprecedented  study of surviving pockets in museums and private collections to  identify their materials, techniques, and decoration; their use is  investigated through sources as diverse as criminal trials, letters,  diaries, inventories, novels, and advertisements. Richly illustrated  with paintings, satirical prints, and photographs of artifacts in  detail, this innovative book reveals the unexpected story of these  deeply evocative and personal objects. Barbara Burman is an independent scholar, and Ariane Fennetaux is associate professor of 18th-century British history at the Université Paris Diderot. Source : éditeur