American Baroque: Pearls and the Nature of Empire, 1492-1700

by Molly A. Warsh

Pearls have enthralled global consumers since antiquity, and the Spanish monarchs Ferdinand and Isabella explicitly charged Columbus with finding pearls, as well as gold and silver, when he sailed westward in 1492. American Baroque charts Spain's exploitation of Caribbean pearl fisheries to trace the genesis of its maritime empire. In the 1500s, licit and illicit trade in the jewel gave rise to global networks, connecting the Caribbean to the Indian Ocean to the pearl-producing regions of the Chesapeake and northern Europe.

Pearls—a unique source of wealth because of their renewable, fungible, and portable nature—defied easy categorization. Their value was highly subjective and determined more by the individuals, free and enslaved, who produced, carried, traded, wore, and painted them than by imperial decrees and tax-related assessments. The irregular baroque pearl, often transformed by the imagination of a skilled artisan into a fantastical jewel, embodied this subjective appeal. Warsh blends environmental, social, and cultural history to construct microhistories of peoples' wide-ranging engagement with this deceptively simple jewel. Pearls facilitated imperial fantasy and personal ambition, adorned the wardrobes of monarchs and financed their wars, and played a crucial part in the survival strategies of diverse people of humble means. These stories, taken together, uncover early modern conceptions of wealth, from the hardscrabble shores of Caribbean islands to the lavish rooms of Mediterranean palaces.

Genres: History, 17th Century, 16th Century, Fashion

304 pages, Hardcover

First published March 20, 2018

Reviews

[Garret Shields · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5/5-In American Baroque: Pearls and the Nature of Empire, 1492-1700, Molly Warsh examines the role of pearls in these early colonial economies. She argues that, because of the infinite variety of these unique gems and the subjectivity of their value, pearls defy the type of regulation that is the hallmark of the early modern state. Pearls were and are highly valued because of their unique color, texture, and luminosity. However, they also are naturally created and therefore can be found in an almost infinite variety of shapes, sizes, and hues, which makes their categorization and value very difficult to assign and enforce. Warsh argues that the very subjectivity regarding the value of pearls is a microcosm of the struggles of early modern empires in establishing and controlling their newly-created colonial states.

[Caroline Severs · Rating 1 out of 5]

What a disappointment. This should have been a fascinating read about the juxtaposition between the romance and beauty of pearls versus the tragedies their discovery and harvest in the New World caused; it wasn't. This book failed to capture any of it. It is full run-on sentences and word salad paragraphs that make very few comprehensive points and often go nowhere. It is almost unreadable. It is unfortunate this went to press. Shame on the editor and publisher for releasing it in this condition. While it seems the author is a good researcher, she fails to incorporate/translate that research in any meaningful or captivating way for the reader. Perhaps if this would have been written as a collection of essays on specific topics (i.e ecology, slavery, artistic incorporation, imperial wealth, etc) it would have been better. I do not recommend.

[Eric · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fabulous book of World History. Warsh combines wide-ranging research with deft analysis and theoretical grounding. Reading this book enriched and complicated my understandings of early modern Atlantic economic and imperial systems and how they fit into global exchanges. More importantly, it led me to consider the human dimensions and aspects of these systems in profound ways. This book came to my attention through through an episode of the On Top of the World Podcast episode featuring Molly Warsh.. Warsh was working on the book at the time of the episode. I listened to it again when I started reading the book. I recommend that as well.

[Mike Emett · Rating 4 out of 5]

Required reading for the "Colonial American History" graduate seminar.