Matthew Boulton 1728-1809

Born in Birmingham in 1728 to a buckle, button and 'toy' maker, Matthew Boulton was an 18th century Renaissance man: an artisan, designer, scientific inventor, entrepreneur, philanthropist and a great British innovator. The Birmingham of Boulton's day was an environment in which scientific enquiry was encouraged and inventiveness prospered.  After his father's death in 1759, Boulton went into partnership with John Fothergill, and in 1762 they established the Soho Manufactory, two miles north of Birmingham.

In the era of the early Industrial Revolution, the Soho Manufactory was a melting pot of scientific endeavour and artistic creativity. The factory manufactured a wide variety of luxury objects; from steel buckles, gilded chatelaines, to ormolu and silver, as well as reproducing oil paintings using a mechanical process. Within the factory, there were workshops specializing in each aspect of the mechanical process, such as burnishing, chasing, gilding and drawing. Objects and their components, were taken from one workshop to another and men and women in each shop contributed their part to the whole.

Soho 'seemed a mechanics' paradise, a promised land, a wonder of modernity with Boulton its chief sorcerer. With its wares exported all over the world, the factory attracted an international clientele. Boulton boasted in 1767, 'Last week we had Prince Poniatowski, nephew of the King of Poland, and the French, Danish and Dutch ambassadors; this week we have the Count Orloff and five celebrated brothers who are such favourites with the Empress of Russia; and only yesterday I had the Viceroy of Ireland who dined with me. Scarcely a day passes without a visit from some distinguished personage' (Matthew Boulton Bicentenary Celebrations, Birmingham City Council, 2008).