NARRATOR: You’re looking at a case chock full of gloriously excessive goodies. Take them in. Just imagine: You’ve never had the opportunity to see such a wealth of choices in your price range. It's eighteenth century London and throngs of people are joining in an exciting new pastime: shopping– the result of Britain’s exploding economy. As historian and novelist Tobias Smollett described shortly thereafter:

TOBIAS SMOLLETT: Commerce and manufacture flourished again, to such a degree of increase as had never been known to the island: but this advantage was attended with an irresistible tide of luxury and excess.

NARRATOR: As if overnight, a shiny sea of “toy shops” opened on London's main thoroughfares around St James’s, Bond Street, and Pall Mall. Rather than selling toys for children, these were for adults: wondrous, shiny, often purposeless objects made solely for amusement and delight.

This renaissance in retail laid the groundwork for how we shop today. It’s not what we need, but what we want, available at diverse “price points. Consider, here, the gold and silver clocks by the luxury manufacturer James Cox. Or how about one of these more affordable makeup cases, scent bottles, or model figurines? Do you prefer a playful design—a candy dish in the shape of a man’s head or a nest of bluebirds? Or obscene opulence, like a gold snuffbox decorated with scenes from antiquity? Admit it–you’re tempted.