As new commodities have been adopted, used and consumed throughout history, social practices have developed around them. Many aspects of social practice relating to commodities are documented in this project. The collection of paintings visually depict a variety of commodities in use in social life. The art of taking tea in domestic spaces in eighteenth-century France is represented in The Four Times of Day: Morning by Nicolas Lancret, while David Tenier’s Smoker at an Inn portrays the behaviour of patrons smoking and drinking in a public setting. The paintings included in Global Commodities also demonstrate how commodities have been used to adorn and distinguish people throughout history. Silver, fur, porcelain and luxurious foods and drinks have all been publicly displayed in portraiture as a way to elevate the status of the sitter (for example, see Posthumous Portrait of Mary I Stuart with a servant by Adriaen Hanneman).