ABSTRACT
This chapter deals with the process of maintaining the physical elements of the home and the economies practised in retaining older furniture or purchasing second-hand goods. Furnishing with second-hand furniture was another practical recycling aspect of homemaking used by the middle classes. Stana Nenadic claims that in the later-eighteenth century 'When new, these articles had been produced for a middle-rank market and they were, in effect being recycled within that market'. At most levels of the middle classes homes were serviced to greater or lesser extent by tradespeople. Purchasing goods from Rodderick and similar auctioneers was not a homemaking strategy reserved for the poor or even the lower middle class. Unlike antiquarians homemakers purchasing second-hand furniture from a cabinetmaker, upholsterer, auctioneer or furniture broker wanted goods that would blend with a vaguely fashionable scheme, not make a particular statement about their taste. Influence of domestic ideology on homemaking practice impacted on the value placed on older objects within domestic interiors.
