The Pocket

A New York Times Best Art Book of 2019 A riveting book . . . few stones are left unturned.Roberta Smiths Top Art Books of 2019, The New York Times This fascinating and enlightening study of the tie-on pocket combines materiality and gender to provide new insight into the social history of womens everyday livesfrom duchesses and country gentry to prostitutes and washerwomenand to explore their consumption practices, sociability, mobility, privacy, and identity. A wealth of evidence reveals unexpected facets of the past, bringing womens stories into intimate focus. What particularly interests Burman and Fennetaux is the way in which women of all classes have historically used these tie-on pockets as a supplementary body part to help them negotiate their way through a world that was not built to suit them.Kathryn Hughes, The Guardian A brilliant book.Ulinka Rublack, Times Literary Supplement