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Cymric
Knox, Archibald, born 1864 - died 1933 - Enlarge image
Cymric
- Object:
Cigarette box
- Place of origin:
Birmingham, England (made)
London, England (retailed) - Date:
1903-1904 (hallmarked)
- Artist/Maker:
Knox, Archibald, born 1864 - died 1933 (designer)
W. H. Haseler (maker)
Liberty (retailer) - Materials and Techniques:
Silver, with cedarwood lining, embossed and inlaid with opal matrix
- Museum number:
M.15-1970
- Gallery location:
British Galleries, room 125g, case 8
Object Type
This box was intended to store either cigarettes or cigars and was part of the range of designs produced by Archibald Knox for Liberty's 'Cymric' range of silverware and jewellery.
Design & Designing
Knox's designs owe much to the immediate precedents offered by the British Arts and Crafts movement and the work of C. R. Ashbee and his Guild of Handicraft in particular. The characteristics shared by the designs produced by Knox and Ashbee include expanses of plain metal, concentrated fluid ornament and monochrome enamel work. Ashbee was to complain later that Liberty's straightforwardly plagiarised his ideas and principles but in this he was wrong. Liberty metalwork was altogether richer, more assured and self confident than the work of the Guild of Handicraft. Knox and his colleagues whether they be his fellow designers at the Silver Studio or the Liberty management who gave their undoubted support, had moved the Arts and Crafts stylistic principles one stage further forward and in so doing, had created a distinctive British version of Art Nouveau.
Materials & Making
It has been suggested that the shallow crispness of the raised decoration on this box may have been achieved by die stamping rather than embossing by hand.
