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Abstract

In 1723, William Clutterbuck of old Frampton Court folded a piece of paper, melted a dab of red wax onto its back, and sealed it with an impression of his family coat of arms. A decade later, a stone mason, perched high on scaffolding, carved the same coat of arms in the tympanum of the new, fashionable house recently constructed by William’s son Richard. In about 1750, a Chinese painter held a piece of porcelain in his hand, stroke by careful brush stroke applying the Clutterbuck arms onto a tea pot. That serving vessel together with at least a hundred other similarly painted objects would shortly make a voyage half way around the world to grace the tables and cupboards at Frampton Court.

Clutterbuck coat of arms, Frampton Court Source: Author.

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Notes

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© 2015 Stephen Hague

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Hague, S. (2015). Enacting Status. In: The Gentleman’s House in the British Atlantic World 1680–1780. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137378385_7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137378385_7

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