Sunday 26 July 2009

Selling What All the World Desires

On that rare thing for me, a Sunday off, we’ve spent the afternoon visiting the Matthew Boulton Exhibition Selling What All the World Desires in the Gas Hall of the Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery.

Okay, so I was always going to like it. It’s about Birmingham and concerned with a subject that interests me. But goodness! I was, as they say, just “blown away” by how good it was. I thought I knew a lot about old MB but there I learned loads of new stuff about him. His relationship with Joseph Wright of Derby. The Lunar Society always meeting on Sundays. His political views. His involvement with Benjamin Franklin. All these were revelations to me.

There’s some fabulous stuff on display: clocks and vases for the Royal Collection, a painting from Tate Britain (which was one of my exam pictures years ago), a collection of medallions showing Birmingham landmarks and even Boulton’s personal diary.

The whole thing was pure joy to me from start to finish and I urge anyone vaguely near Birmingham to visit it before it closes on 27 September 2009. It’s even FREE! There are more details at:

http://www.matthewboulton2009.org

I feel inspired to do a themed Birmingham walk just about Matthew Boulton now!

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