Loyal exchange: the material and visual culture of Jacobite exile, 1716-60

This study will concentrate on the visual and material culture made in support of the Jacobite cause between 1716 and 1760. Although objects were produced throughout the Jacobite period, particularly between the 1715 and 1745 uprisings, a high concentration were created in the period immediately following the Battle of Culloden in 1746 up to c.1760. After this time the line between items made for the cause and those made for the romantic appeal of the 'lost cause' start to become blurred. Those made for the cause itself took many forms and encompassed medals, snuff boxes and wine glasses as well as everyday items branded with imagery and/or text.
The silent language of Jacobite objects was rare in a world where both the written and spoken word were encouraged. What makes these artefacts unique is that as a group, they have all been consciously branded in some way to convey secret messages, as seditious words, documents and actions were punished if detected or suspected. This phenomenon is not seen before or afterwards, although the culture of Jacobite symbolic imagery continued into the Romantic period. This later period, where expression was encouraged and could be made much more freely, was also the time where objects with a connection to the Jacobite cause, persons or the Stuarts became revered as relics.
This project will assess and use material culture, portraits, prints and documentary evidence together to consider, discuss and develop a culture theory regarding this very distinct group of objects. As well as re-examining the Stuart Papers to track and discover how these objects and messages were conveyed and disseminated, the study will also be based on the analysis of both the visual and material culture to build object biographies, discover how the symbolic language developed and to add further context to the field of Jacobite studies.