Adam, Wedgwood and the beginnings of industry

Neoclassicism arrived with the architect Robert Adam, and Wedgwood and Boulton turned it into industrial products.

Robert Adam designed entire interiors in the antique style, with ceilings, walls, carpets and furniture in matching patterns. The pattern books of Hepplewhite and Sheraton spread light, elegant furniture with straight legs.

In Staffordshire Josiah Wedgwood built the Etruria works, and in Birmingham Matthew Boulton made metal goods on a large scale and built steam engines with James Watt. Britain became the world's first industrial nation.