This book provides the first comprehensive examination of household auctions as the key mechanism for recirculating household goods through the 18th and early 19th century. In focusing on household auctions, Sara Pennell and Jon Stobart contextualise and historicise the importance of used goods to consumer choices, experiences and identities. They tell the stories of the people and things, as well as the broader processes, practices and attitudes that were bound up in the commercial recirculation of used goods through auctions.

Auctions and the Consumption of Used Goods in Georgian England rebalances the historiography of second-hand consumption – currently dominated by used clothing on the one hand, and the sale of books, art and antiques on the other – and brings second-hand into the mainstream of household consumption. It also explodes the twin myths that second-hand was the last resort of the poor and that it declined rapidly as Britain industrialised and the supply of new consumer goods increased; in reality, household auctions remained vibrant and important mechanisms of supply. Finally, the book demonstrates that consumer motivations were far more complex than simple financial necessity; the reasons for buying second-hand varied between households and according to the type of goods being bought – thrift, utility and the construction of identity all played a part. Household auctions did not fade to the margins; they remained an important part of how households acquired a wide variety of goods and fulfilled a variety of consumer needs.