Serving as Ornament: The Representation of African People in Early Modern British Interiors and Gardens

Abstract

Objects which featured representations of African figures in postures of servitude were common features in British houses and gardens of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. This article focuses on three such sets of stands in the National Trust collections of Ham House, Knole, and Dyrham Park. Combining evidence found in letters and household inventories with analysis of the design of these objects, this article dissects the development of the decorative category of the “blackamoor”. It argues that, by exploring the language used to describe these figurative pieces of furniture, the manner in which they were displayed, and the materials from which they were made, we can gain a greater understanding of how decorative objects reinforced racial hierarchies through the normalisation of black servitude and explicitly celebrated the wealth and status gained through the exploitation of enslaved African people.