KNOX, Archibald

This box was retailed by the London Art Nouveau store of Liberty & Company.

The box, designed by Archibald Knox, was manufactured for Liberty & Co. by W. H. Haseler Ltd., London. This firm acted in partnership with Liberty & Co. for the manufacture of the Cymric range of silverware.

During the late 19th century, archaeological investigations and discoveries contributed to regionalist and nationalist impulses in the decorative arts, such as the so-called “Viking Revival” style, rife with Scandinavian forms. Manx designer Archibald Knox often paired ornament inspired by the traditional arts of his Celtic ancestors with stylistic conventions of contemporary design movements. This box, enlivened by Celtic-inspired interlaced knots and enamelled buds characteristic of the English Arts and Crafts movement, captures the dual senses of historicism and modernity that defined turn-of-the-century design.

This box is one of four variants known to exist. The Museum’s example is the most elaborate of the four and is distinguished from the other known examples by its bulging lid and massive opal cabochon. The complexity and scale of this work suggest it was made on special order and was among the more costly works in Liberty & Co.’s Cymric line of silver goods.

The jug, designed by Archibald Knox, was manufactured for Liberty & Co. by W. H. Haseler Ltd., London. This firm acted in partnership with Liberty & Co. for the manufacture of the Cymric range of silverware.

Founded in 1875, Liberty & Company had many parallels with Siegfried Bing’s Paris shop L’Art Nouveau. By importing fashionable designs from continental Europe and Asia, as well as exporting their own designs abroad, Liberty would become one of the most successful of the department stores with the policy of commissioning designs from leading artists and architects of the day. Indeed, the firm’s importance is reflected in the Italian term “lo stile Liberty”, or “Liberty style,” often used to generically describe avant-garde taste from the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

Knox was one of Liberty’s most popular and prolific designers, in particular producing designs for silver goods, the best known of which were the Tudric line and the Cymric line, of which this claret jug is an example. Though it may superficially recall the aesthetics of contemporaneous French Art Nouveau, the jug is uniquely British in drawing aesthetic inspiration from traditional Celtic designs. Its flat disk base effectively grounds the jug’s sinuous decorative curves and remarkable flyaway thumbpiece.

Archibald Knox was one of the most talented and original designers of the Arts and Crafts Movement. The jardini�re is a particularly fine example of Knox’s ceramic garden pottery. It is distinguished by both its highly original form decorated with the Celtic knot pattern, so closely identified with Knox’s work, and by its deep copper-red lustre glaze, one of the most striking found on any Knox ceramic object. It is rare to have a Knox-designed ceramic piece, as his work for this medium is much less commonly found than his metalwork designs.

The works of Archibald Knox were inspired by Celtic ornamental details, which became English Art Nouveau trademarks. He designed elegant vases, candelabra, chalices, boxes and baskets, as well as clocks made in silver and pewter. They were shaped into innovative forms, with functional lines and harmonious contours, and some were enhanced by enamels or blue-green polished stones or semi-precious stone cabochons.

Knox also designed some of famous Liberty’s “Tudric” pewter series, very similar to the Jugendstil pewterware made in Germany.

This enamelled gold pendant is from the Cymric jewellery range of Liberty & Company. It was designed by Archibald Knox and made by W. H. Haseler Ltd., London.

Established in 1875, Liberty’s department store in London built its reputation on supplying artistic and unusual products. In 1899 it launched a line of ‘Cymric’ jewellery, which drew both the Art Nouveau and Arts and Crafts styles. Cymric jewellery featured sinuous lines, unusual gemstones and often appeared to be hand-beaten. However, it was commercially produced using machine processes - something which enraged Arts and Crafts jewellers like C.R. Ashbee.

Cymric jewellery was very popular. Its success was partly due to the innovation and talent of the designers employed by Liberty, including Archibald Knox, who designed this piece. Knox was a designer and teacher from the Isle of Man and was responsible for some of the Cymric range’s most exceptional designs, particularly those based on Celtic interlace.

In 1902, Knox designed some of the famous “Tudric” pewter series for Liberty & Co. in London. Tudric was a range of pewterware sold by the London Art Nouveau store of Liberty & Co. The Celtic name was chosen as a tribute to the Welsh ancestors of John Llewellyn, a director of Liberty. The Tudric series is very similar to the Jugendstil pewterware made in Germany.

This tobacco canister is from the Tudric series.