Birmingham Museums & Art Gallery has purchased two extremely rare Matthew Boulton Argand lamps for Soho House Museum in Handsworth.
Boulton helped manufacture the oil lamps for Swiss inventor Ami Argand, who had developed a revolutionary new lighting system which was seven times brighter than the tallow candles then in popular use. The lamps also did not produce the same smoke and smell. Although the venture was fraught with difficulties and legal entanglements, the lamps finally went into production in the 1780s.
Today, most known Boulton Argand lamps are in American museum collections, and there are several in the White House in Washington DC.
The two neo-classical Sheffield plate lamps have been on loan to Soho House since it opened to the public in 1995. However, thanks to the generosity of the Friends of Birmingham Museums & Art Gallery, the MLA/V&A Purchase Grant Fund and The Art Fund, the UK’s leading independent art charity, the museum has finally been able to purchase them outright.
Matthew Boulton is one of Birmingham and the West Midland’s most important historic figures, and made a hugely significant contribution to world history. Boulton lived at Soho House in Handsworth, close to the site where he established the then world-renowned Soho factory for the manufacture of toys, silver, ormolu, Sheffield plate, coinage, medals and eventually the steam engine.
Cllr Ray Hassall, Cabinet Member for Leisure, Sport & Culture commented:
“Being able to acquire these extremely rare lamps is fantastic news for the Museum – and it is especially pleasing to secure them in time for the Matthew Boulton Bicentenary celebration in 2009.”
David Barrie, Director of The Art Fund, the art charity which gave a grant of £7,000 to help purchase the lamps, said: “I’m delighted that The Art Fund has helped to ensure that these two beautiful Boulton Argand lamps will now be on public display in Soho House, the one time family home of the Boultons. Soho House will be in good company - several of these world renowned lamps can be found in the White House in Washington.”
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