Emily Aleev-Snow
MA work
MA work
-
Falconry Hood, English, c. 1570-1629. Victoria and Albert Museum, No. T.151-1965.
Photographer: Emily Aleev-Snow -
An image of a hawk surrounded by falconry material culture, taken from the title page of Edmund Bert's An Approve Treatise for Hawks and Hawking, published in London in 1619.
Photographer: Emily Aleev-Snow -
A side-by-side comparison of patterns for falconry hoods: (L) a one-piece Arabian design, and (R) a three-piece Dutch design. Traced by Emily Aleev-Snow from patterns made by falconer and hood maker Jacques van Gerven.
Photographer: Emily Aleev-Snow -
Wooden block moulds of various sizes, used in the making of falconry hoods. Made and owned by falconer and hood maker Jacques van Gerven.
Photographer: Emily Aleev-Snow -
A falconer entreats a reluctant bird to return to his fist. From Jost Amman's treatise on hunting, published in Frankfurt in 1592.
Photographer: Emily Aleev-Snow -
A comparison of falcons wearing two different designs of hood, markedly diverging in pattern yet similar in the end product; (L) a one-piece Arabian hood, (R) a three-piece Dutch hood.
Photographer: Emily Aleev-Snow -
A rare detailed illustration of falconry veterinary instruments, from Charles D'Arcussia's 1617 Falconaria.
Photographer: Emily Aleev-Snow -
A page from George Turbervile's 1575 The Booke of Faulconrie or Hauking for the only Delight and Pleasure of all Noblemen and Gentlemen, displaying the geographic and temporal breadth of his source materials.
Photographer: Emily Aleev-Snow -
A falconer and several species of raptors in the mews, pictured with various pieces of falconry material culture. From Nicholas Cox's 1677 treatise, The Gentleman's Recreation: In Four Parts, viz. Hunting, Hawking, Fowling, Fishing.
Photographer: Emily Aleev-Snow -
An image from the Recueilde la diversité, a 1567 costume book, demonstrating how a hooded falcon can become literally objectified, turned into an accessory object signifying nobility.
Photographer: Emily Aleev-Snow
'To Breed a Familiar League of Friendship, Love and Unity': Understanding the Practice of Falconry through its Material Mediators, 1400–1650
Humans
and birds of prey have partnered in the practice of falconry throughout
Afro-Eurasia for several
thousand years. Until nearly the end of the early modern period falconry played
a vital role as a motivator and mediator of trade, diplomacy and cultural
exchange, as well as providing crucial theoretical backgrounding for notions of
nobility and gentility, the class structures of human society, religious and
spiritual debates and studies of the natural world. The widespread and deeply
ingrained material and intellectual importance that has accrued to the practice
of falconry (and to birds of prey) across geographies and time would be
impossible without – and is fundamentally predicated upon – the relationship(s)
built between humans and raptors.
The
dissertation examines the material culture of early modern falconry,
particularly focusing on the design and usages of falconry treatises, leather
hoods and visual representations of falconry relationships, and how these may
have constructed or reflected the perceptions and trajectories of these
geographically – and temporally
–  contingent relationships. Through this
investigation it is posited that by acknowledging the fundamental human/avian
relationships and ensuing human/human relationships of falconry as design
interactions constructed and mediated by the material culture of falconry
practice – by examining those design interactions, not primarily from the human
practitioner’s point of view, but rather from the
perspective of the dynamic agency of the material objects involved – it is
possible to gain a more well-rounded understanding not only of various human
perceptions of falconry and the birds involved, but also of how the birds’ own
agency might have defined those perceptions and interactions.
Info
Info
-
-
MA Degree
School
School of Humanities
Programme
MA History of Design, 2014
-
Contact
-
-
I am an MA candidate on the Asian specialism of the V&A/RCA History of Design programme. My interests include early modern global histories and histories of technology and the natural world, with a focus on what objects can reveal about the sharing of knowledge across geographies and time. My research while on the course has ranged widely, with projects running the gamut from zoomorphic drinking vessels and trade in coconuts, to anomalous hydraulic clocks, to human/avian relationships and hood designs in falconry practice. Additionally, I am co-editor of the ‘Object of the Week’ column on Unmaking Things, an online creative platform run and edited by V&A/RCA History of Design students.
-
Degrees
- BA East Asian Studies, Bryn Mawr College, 2004
-
Experience
- Researcher and assistant to the Political Minister, Embassy of Japan in the United States, Washington, D.C., 2005–2010
-
Awards
- V&A Travel Award, 2013
-
Conferences
- 'To Breed a Familiar League of Friendship, Love and Unity: human/avian relationships in early modern falconry', Between Apes and Angels: Human and Animal in the Early Modern World Conference, University of Edinburgh, 4-6 December 2014 [forthcoming]; 'Empires of Glass: Bristol Manufacturers Isaac and Lazarus Jacobs and the Colonial Taste in Bottles', (with Angela McShane and Hannah Stockton, V&A/RCA), Imperial City: Bristol in the World Conference, UWE, 21-22 September 2013