The social position of the Adam brothers helped them greatly in towering above the other English designers and decorative artists of the day. Their father, William Adam, was an architect of reputation in Scotland; and sent his second son, Robert, to the University of Edinburgh, where he formed important friendships. In 1754, he went to Italy with a French architect and made a careful study of the ruins of the Emperor Diocletian’s palace at Spalatro in Dalmatia. He was made F.R.S. and F.S.A. while abroad; and, on his return to England, in 1762, become royal architect. His brother James was closely identified with him in all his work. The nobility and gentry not only patronized them, but received them socially; and when Robert died in 1792, and was buried in Westminster Abbey, the state of his funeral and the high rank of the persons who attended and officiated, prove the regard in which he was held. Adam, therefore, is of a very different class from Chippendale, Heppelwhite and Sheraton; and, although he designed much furniture to accord with the rooms that he altered and decorated, he never made any. The Adam brothers were purely designers: they employed special artists to work for them. These were Angelica Kauffman, and her husband, Antonio Zucchi, and Cipriani; also Pergolesi, whom they brought from Italy, and who Mr. Heaton says “beyond doubt was the unacknowledged author of most of the beautiful details of Adam’s book.” Among their most important works that include interior decoration were: Sion House, the Duke of Northumberland’s seat in Middlesex; Kenwood, Lord Mansfield’s house near Hampstead; Osterley House, near Brentford; Shelburne (now Lansdowne) House, Berkeley Square, London; Keddlestone, Derbyshire; Luton House, Bedfordshire; and Compton Verney, Warwickshire. [Illustration: PLATE L] “Whatever were the architectural defects of their works, the brothers formed a style, which was marked by a fine sense of proportion, and a very elegant taste in the selection and disposition of niches, lunettes, reliefs, festoons, and other classical ornaments. It was their custom to design furniture in character with their apartments, and their works of this kind are still highly prized. Amongst them may be specially mentioned their sideboards with elegant urn-shaped knife-boxes, but they also designed bookcases and commodes, brackets and pedestals, clock-cases and candelabra, mirror-frames and console tables of singular and original merit, adapting classical forms to modern uses with a success unrivalled by any other designer of furniture in England. They designed also carriages and plate, and a sedan-chair for Queen Charlotte. Of their decorative work generally it may be said that it was rich but neat, refined but not effeminate, chaste but not severe, and that it will probably have quite as lasting and beneficial effect upon English taste as their architectural structures.”[22]