Wedgwood, Boulton, and Henry Hoare II: patronage of the antique taste at Stourhead.

Henry Hoare II, or "Henry the Magnificent" as he was known to his family, was an exemplary patron of the arts and an astute customer of Britain's most innovative entrepreneurs of his day (Fig. 3). (1) A scion of the founder of Britain's oldest private bank and the creator of the enchanting pleasure garden inspired by Roman antiquity at Stourhead, in Wiltshire, Hoare's unlimited wealth and cultured taste placed him at the forefront of fashion in England, particularly for the antique taste that developed after the discoveries of the ancient Roman cities of Herculaneum (1738) and…