Table of Contents

Introduction
Part I: Diplomats Overseas
1: Equipping the Royal Representative
2: Establishing the Embassy Abroad
3: Collecting and Connoisseurship
4: Procurement and Display
Part II: Strategies of Distinction
5: Patronage, Networks, and the Arts: The Earl of Arlington, 1618-1685
6: Informed Choices: Ralph Montagu, 1638-1709
7: Venetian Influences: The Earl of Manchester, 1662-1722
8: The Connoisseurial Advisor: Matthew Prior, 1664-1721
9: Ubiquitous display: The Earl of Strafford, 1672-1739
Conclusion
Bibliography

About the Author

Dr Jacobsen graduated from Cambridge University and pursued a career in investment banking, working in London, New York, and Tokyo. She returned to academia to pursue her overriding interest in cultural history and studied for her D.Phil at New College, Oxford, on the subject of seventeenth-century diplomats and their material world. She currently lectures on architecture and the decorative arts of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.

Reviews

Helen Jacobsen's book is an example of the kinds of insights that a more imaginative approach to the social and cultural history of diplomacy can provide ... A brief review can provide no more than a cursory synopsis of the wealth of information in Jacobsens book, which should be required reading for anyone seriously interested in the elite society and culture of the period it covers.
*Malcolm Smuts, Emeritus University of Massachusetts Boston, The American Historical Review*

Helen Jacobsens fine study of the material world of late Stuart diplomats richly documents their purchase of lavish furnishings, plate, tapestries and artwork for their embassies abroad, and their transfer of European fashion and artists home to England. Superbly researched, the book lays out just how an embassy was set up, from the appropriate house to the symbolic representations of the Crown, including the chair of state, royal portrait, and parade coach.
*Linda Levy Peck, English Historical Review*

Helen Jacobsen is to be congratulated on bringing together much original research and providing case studies which bring to life the role of the material world of the Stuart diplomat and the influence that exposure to the culture of another nation could have on patronage and aspirations back home.
*Tessa Murdoch, The Huguenot Society Journal*