Over the last decade or so there has been a cultural turn in diplomatic studies. Scholars such as John Watkins have called for a new diplomatic history that appreciates diplomacy as a cultural as well as a political activity and that adopts a range of interdisciplinary approaches. Helen Jacobsen's book on material culture in late Stuart diplomacy would therefore seem to be timely. It claims to establish the role of material goods within diplomacy, to demonstrate how these goods could be put to political use domestically at the end of a mission, and to place women at the heart of diplomatic life. Luxury and Power is split into two sections: the first deals with diplomats abroad, the second with diplomatic networks and material culture at home, through case studies of five ambassadors, four of whom were aristocrats. The opening section aims to paint a wider picture of diplomats’ material consumption, but perhaps inevitably there is a degree of overlap between the two sections. Jacobsen ably uncovers a wealth of evidence concerning the furnishings of later Stuart embassies and diplomats’ involvement in conspicuous consumption. She discusses the provisioning of diplomats with the major items necessary to convey the dignity of monarchy abroad—ambassadorial plate, chapel furniture, the chair and cloth of estate, royal portrait, and the ceremonial coach or gondola—arguing that a gradual shift occurred during the later Stuart period, which saw the material trappings of embassies change from being a representation of the magnificence of the monarch to a reflection of the culture and taste of an individual diplomat. Simultaneously, Jacobsen argues, many of those who undertook diplomatic service had their understanding of the political utility of luxury goods shaped by their experiences abroad. Undertaking embassies in cities like Paris, Venice, or The Hague gave diplomats opportunities to purchase luxury goods more cheaply than was possible at home (not least as their possessions were exempt from customs dues) and brought them into contact with foreign furniture makers, cloth manufacturers, and artists whose works were highly desirable. Jacobsen skillfully brings to the fore the material consumption and aesthetic concerns of individual diplomats and shows that in many instances their wives were involved in the process of selecting the items, especially those that were ultimately intended for their English houses. While aristocratic ambassadors such as the Earls of Manchester and Strafford used their material consumption to fashion aristocratic identities designed to enhance their political credentials, gentleman ambassadors such as Matthew Prior could pursue advancement by acting as connoisseurial advisers to wealthy patrons, procuring material goods for those at home.

Further questions, however, remain to be answered. Was the social status of an ambassador the primary factor determining his material consumption? While aristocratic ambassadors were frequently used in France and at peace congresses, they were less frequently deployed in missions to Italy, Scandinavia, Russia, and Germany. How typical was Matthew Prior? Did other ambassadors of gentry status at other courts also act as agents for domestic politicians to the same extent? If so, was what they were doing qualitatively different from those diplomats discussed by David Howard and Robert Hill, who also served as art agents in the early Stuart period? Jacobsen suggests that a politician's appreciation of the arts and material culture may have been taken into account during the process of diplomatic selection. But was this the case with other later Stuart appointments, and if so, how did aesthetic appreciation rank alongside other qualifications for diplomatic service? Despite its rich description of the material goods that ambassadors used and acquired on embassy, Luxury and Power sometimes feels like a missed opportunity. In a work that had unearthed so much fascinating evidence of the material culture of diplomacy, it is disappointing to find so little engagement with recent work on diplomatic culture, especially when the work of scholars like Lucien Bély, Christian Windler, and André Krischer has encouraged us to think about the complexities of diplomatic practice, including the importance of ritual, ceremonial, and cultural exchange during diplomatic encounters. Jacobsen's focus is largely on the purchase of a particular object and the fashion and taste to which it points; although she often briefly flags on the use of a specific item, she rarely explores the diplomatic responses it provoked. When contemporary opinions are given, these are most often those of the Stuart diplomats themselves, rather than those of the foreign politicians they were aiming to impress. A fuller discussion of how material objects operated in ceremonial and ritual contexts and the responses of foreign politicians would have done more to bring out the importance of material culture within diplomatic processes and helped to establish how important individual aesthetic decisions were in practice. The basic significance of state portraits and cloths of estate is self-evident, but how did other diplomats and visitors to the ambassadorial household treat these items? How did the decoration of the ambassadorial household and knowledge of an ambassador's material consumption influence foreign ambassadors and courtiers? Did the decoration of a coach matter as much to other diplomatic actors as the order in which ambassadors dismounted from their coaches? What was the reaction to the Earl of Castlemaine displaying elaborate royal and papal arms on his ambassadorial residence? Only by addressing such questions can the true significance of such items be understood. It is also surprising that Jacobsen did not pay more attention to the gifts that formed a regular part of diplomatic life and that demarcated status and prestige; these surely were an important part of the material world of diplomats. Jacobsen's book may firmly establish the importance of later Stuart diplomats in the international movement of luxury goods, the promotion of new aesthetics in England, and the recruitment of skilled artists and musicians for service in England, but more work remains to be done on how material culture contributed to later Stuart diplomatic practice.