Jewellery, Watches and Objects of Vertu

A ‘Cymric’ silver and enamel Coronation spoon, designed by Archibald Knox for Liberty & Co., 1901, the bowl chased with inscription ‘Anno.CoRON. ER VII’ with green and blue enamels within entrelac design, the slim handle with interlaced projections and tapering to pointed terminal, stamped ‘CYMRIC’, ‘L & Co’, and hallmarked for Birmingham 1902, length 16.2cm. £1,000-£1,200

Archibald Knox was commissioned to design commemorative items for the Coronation of King Edward VII, which took place on 9th August 1902, and for this he designed a number of ‘spectacular spoons’, the designs of which continued to be produced in later years without the commemorative lettering.

Literature:

Archibald Knox, ed. Stephen A. Martin, pub. Academy Editions 1995, see page 50 and page 114 for illustration of this lot.


Archibald Knox (1864-1933), born and trained on the Isle of Man, came to London in the late 1890s, and was to become the principal silver and pewter designer for Liberty & Co from 1899-1912. Steeped in the Celtic tradition of design from his Manx upbringing, he refined and purified the Celtic style to portray a personal version of Celtic ornament which was to become idiosyncratic with his style. His Cymric and Tudric designs became market leaders for Liberty’s. The Liberty company policy of enforced anonymity of its designers may have been a welcome rule to Knox, being a shy man, of ‘personal modesty’, who, during the height of the craze for Liberty’s Celtic Revival Style, left London, preferring to work from his studio on the Isle of Man between the years 1900-1904, and sending his designs, drawn on paper, to London by post to be translated into metal by craftsmen in Birmingham. This long distance arrangement appeared to have suited all concerned parties, probably because of Knox’s solid and reliable record and Arthur Lasenby Liberty’s trust in his work.

By 1908-9, the demand for Liberty’s Celtic Revival style began to subside, and by 1910, the movement in England was essentially over. After 1912, Knox ceased to work for Liberty’s, moving overseas to Philadelphia.