BIRMINGHAM ENAMELWARE

enameled objects made in Birmingham, Eng., an important centre for the production of 18th-century European enamelware. The most prominent Birmingham enameler was Matthew Boulton (17281809), a leading English engineer and manufacturer. His firm, Boulton and Fothergill, produced some of England's finest gilded bronze and brass or ormolu mounts and ornaments for furniture and was a major supplier of enamelware to the court of Empress Catherine II the Great of Russia. Boulton may have initiated the use of platinum in silver-lustred enamel decoration and the use of tortoiseshell to line enameled snuffboxes. Little is known of other Birmingham enamelers.