The East India Company at Home, 1757-1857 explores how empire in Asia shaped British country houses, their interiors and the lives of their residents. It includes chapters from researchers based in a wide range of settings such as archives and libraries, museums, heritage organisations, the community of family historians and universities. It moves beyond conventional academic narratives and makes an important contribution to ongoing debates around how empire impacted Britain.

Introduction Margot Finn and Kate Smith Section 1 The social life of things 1. Prize possession: the 'silver coffer' of Tipu Sultan and the Fraser family Sarah Longair and Cam Sharp Jones 2. Chinese wallpaper: from Canton to country house Helen Clifford 3. Production, purchase, dispossession, recirculation: Anglo-Indian ivory furniture in the British country house Kate Smith 4. 'A jaghire without a crime': the East India Company and the Indian Ocean material world at Osterley, 1700-1800 Yuthika Sharma and Pauline Davies Section 2 Objects, houses, homes and the construction of identities 5. Manly objects? Gendering armorial porcelain wares Kate Smith 6. Fanny Parkes (1794-1875): female collecting and curiosity in India and Britain Joanna Goldsworthy7. Refashioning house, home and family: Montreal Park, Kent and Touch House, Stirlingshire Margot Finn and Kate Smith Section 3 The Home Counties: clusters and connections 8. Warfield Park, Berkshire: longing, belonging and the British country house Kate Smith 9. Englefield House, Berkshire: processes, practices and the making of a Company house Kate Smith 10. Swallowfield Park, Berkshire: from royalist bastion to empire home Margot Finn 11. Valentines, the Raymonds and Company material culture Georgina Green 12. Growing up in a Company town: the East India Company presence in South Hertfordshire Chris Jeppesen Section 4 On the borders: region, nation, globe 13. A fairy palace in Devon: Redcliffe Towers, built by Colonel Robert Smith (1787-1873), Bengal Engineers Diane James 14. Partly after the Chinese manner: 'Chinese' staircases in north-west Wales Rachael Barnwell 15. The intimate trade of Alexander Hall: salmon and slaves in Scotland and Sumatra, c.1745-1765 Ellen Filor 16. Connecting Britain and India: General Patrick Duff and Madeira Alistair MutchSection 5 Company families and identities: writing history today 17. The career of William Gamul Farmer (1746-1797) in India, 1763-1795 Penelope Farmer 18. The Melvill family and India David Williams 19. The Indian seal of Sir Francis Sykes: a tale of two families Sir John SykesConclusion Margot Finn and Kate Smith