Archibald Knox (1864-1933)

Archibald Knox was a well known Manx designer made famous by his Liberty designs. He was of Scottish descent and many items had influences of Celt. His designs for Liberty's made him a household name, as did his watercolours, graphic designs and fonts. His design talent covered a wide range of objects, ornamental and utilitarian, and included silver and pewter tea sets, jewellery, inkwells, boxes, gravestones and even bank cheques, much for Liberty's Tudric pewter and Cymric (precious metals) ranges. The gravestone of Liberty's founder, Arthur Lasenby Liberty, was designed by Knox.

 

Lyon and Turnbull's Decorative Arts Sale on the 16th April 2014 has a fantastic selection of Knox's Tudric designs. Here below are examples:

 

 

 

Lot 136 * ARCHIBALD KNOX (1864-1933) FOR LIBERTY & CO., LONDON 'TUDRIC' PEWTER AND ABALONE INLAID CLOCK, CIRCA 1902 36.5cm high

Estimate: £6000  - 8000

 

 

 

Lot 145
* ARCHIBALD KNOX (1864-1933) FOR LIBERTY & CO., LONDON
LARGE 'TUDRIC' BULLET SHAPE PEWTER & ENAMEL VASE, CIRCA 1900
cast with stylised entwined foliage on three strut supports, stamped marks ENGLISH PEWTER/ MADE IN ENGLAND/ 0927
29.5cm high
Estimate £500-700

 

Check out the link below for the rest of the online catalogue...

 

http://www.lyonandturnbull.com/asp/searchresults.asp?pg=1&ps=25&st=D&sale_no=405

 

I just really think that Knox was a fascinating designer and he worked across so many mediums. He came from a small island and had vision. His pieces fetch great deals of money nowadays so go and hunt and see what you can find!

 

I shall leave you with a few images of his works. Don't forget to check out the links below for the Knox society!

 

http://archibaldknoxsociety.com/ 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

J D Fergusson Seminar, 20th March 2014. National Galleries of Scotland

Last Thursday I went through to Edinburgh for a seminar on one of the most successful and well known Scottish Artists. He was one of four artists from Scotland known together as the 'Scottish Colourists'. J D Fergusson was born in Leith in 1874, travelled all over the UK and France to eventually setting in Glasgow in 1939.

Fergusson painted landscapes and various other subjects but latterly he turned to his stylised female form for which he is best known. (Previously shown in an earlier blog entry). The seminar was more about his life and work as an artist, his relationship with Anne Estelle Rice and then Margaret Morris. His connections with other noted members of the art world of the time - most notably the 'Toshies' Charles Rennie Mackintosh and Margaret MacDonald Mackintosh.

The day was held in he Hawthornden Lecture Theatre and was hosted by curator Alice Strang. She has been the mastermind behind the 'Colourist Series' that has so far looked at S J Peploe, F C B Caddell and now J D Fergusson. Speakers were invited to talk around the subject of Fergussons art, his life, career, social circles and how he was influenced by the people around him.

Jonathan Blackwood an indépendant art historian and curator gave a lecture on 'Fergusson as a Sculptor-Painter'. He went onto explain that not only was Fergusson painting such fascinating pictures but he was creating art in the third dimension. His sculptures were not only well crafted but very stylised in design and form. He showed his three dimensional works within his two dimensional flat works which was unheard of.Blackwood went to to say that Fergusson was always trying to convey movement through the female form using foliage and colour his funicular modernism techniques were ahead of their time.

Alice Strang then gave a lecture on his group of Portsmouth landscapes. These are a set of landscapes done during the war years where Fergusson managed to get himself positioned as a war time artist (unofficial) so as not to conscript and have to fight. These were completely new ground for Fergusson and let him draw and paint huge machinery in a completely different setting to the streets in Paris or his indoor studio!

It has been said that Portsmouth docks saved Fergusson from active service and if any of the readers knew him they wouldn't be surprised. He was incredibly vain, perfectly turned out and always loved getting attention and posing for photographs. In some ways he was very selfish not to go to war but he put it down to his political views 'sitting on the fence'

Charlotte De Mille from the Courtauld Institute of Art gave a lecture on 'Fergusson's Bergson' which was lengthly and strayed slightly into academia and philosophy. Followed by Richard Emerson formerly of the National Trust for Scotland gave a great account of Fergusson and Meg's relationship with the Mackintosh's and the rest of the art world in Chelsea at the time.

The seminar was a fantastic and interesting day and I would urge anyone who hasn't been to Modern Two to see the Colourist Series:J D Fergusson exhibition to go!