ABSTRACT
This chapter considers the ceremony, controversy and commemoration after his death through an examination of his funeral ritual and ways in which he was remembered through obituaries, texts and material culture. The events after Matthew Boulton's death illuminate the processes of ceremony, controversy and commemoration. Robinson Boulton wanted a public funeral on an 'extensive scale' to remember his celebrity father and construct a positive lasting reputation. It was a large public event which cost a lot of money, but which he believed did not honour his father adequately. The production of high-quality medals was a secure long-established activity of firm of Boulton and Watt, and he could delegate the production of a memorial to John Flaxman, a successful English sculptor with a national reputation. In Boulton's case, his reputation was framed within an Enlightenment culture which celebrated individual genius, artistic and mechanical improvement and public benevolence.
