Hannah Kaspar

I have a particular research interest in eighteenth-century architecture and decorative art. My PhD at the University of Leeds focused on the Scottish architects Robert and James Adam, examining their supervisory role as surveyors and project-managers. As part of my doctoral research, I explored the Adam brothers’ subcontracting arrangements and their strategies for communicating instructions across geographically dispersed networks. Using digital mapping tools, I analysed the distribution of their artisanal network in London by locating key sites of activity according to different craft sectors.  

Architecture, decorative art and craftsmanship in the long eighteenth century; Social History; Economic History; History of Collecting; British and European Neoclassicism

Following the completion of my PhD in September 2022, I worked for several months on a cataloguing project at Waddesdon Manor, developing object records for Meissen porcelain in the Rothschild Collection.

As the John Bedford Fellow at LAHRI, I will develop the broader themes of my doctoral research through a continued exploration of trade networks, workshop structures and role versatility. Prioritising the trade-card collection – a particular highlight of the John Evan Bedford Library – I will discuss the activities of London’s furniture-makers, comparing their promotional strategies and product innovation.  

Publications

‘“A tedious business”: Robert Adam and Joseph Rose, plasterwork and pay disputes’, The Georgian Group Journal, Vol. 29 (2021), pp. 117-34.