Archibald Knox was born on the Isle of Man, Douglas, April 1869.  He was the fifth son of Scottish parents, who moved to the Isle of Man in around 1840.

Knox studied art at the Douglas School of Art.  The School followed the same curriculum as the more famous Glasgow School of Art that was at the heart of the modern movement from 1890.  Knox was the star pupil of the School and, as whilst his fame today is very much as a designer for Liberty, he was always foremostly an artist and art teacher.

To understand Knox you have to understand the Isle of Man.  It is a small island in the Irish sea set between Scotland and Ireland.  Its heritage is ancient, having been inhabited by the Celts in the Bronze age from around 1000 BC.  Like many Islands, it has its own proud independent heritage.  The strands of this being Celtic and Norse.

The Island’s natural history is also key to understanding Knox.  The Island is wind swept with few trees.  The coastline both rocky and yet with bays of some of the finest beaches. The interior of the Island dominated by hills and the mountainous Snaefell.

It was this unspoilt Isle of Man that Knox took to his heart.  His affections no doubt heightened by the threat to this landscape from the development of the island from c 1860.  The railways gave ready access to the Island via the port of Liverpool from which there were regular sailings to the Island.  Queen Victoria popularised the Island as a tourist destination with a consequent explosion in tourism threatening the Island’s traditions.

In 1896 Knox wrote an article published in the widely read and prestigious Studio Art Journal.  Its title, “The Isle of Man as a Sketching Ground”.  It is a long eulogy to the Isle of Man.  A quote from that article says much of Knox’s persona:

[In Castletown, Isle of Man]… the sea enters into every view, grey white or glistening beneath the sun, tenderest of blues in the evening, or deep turquoise under the influence of a breeze; it runs in streaks into land touching the greens and pinks of spring, and insinuates itself into the gardens of the fishermen’s cottages; it winds among great stretches of golden wrack; and its mists float on to the land where the coast is depressed, offering new forms of clod and new fancies of subject. (p. 146)

In 1897 at the age of 33 Knox left the Isle of Man and set off for London as a teaching assistant at Redhill College of Art. Through a mutual friend Knox was invited to begin design for The Silver Studio, a commercial design studio.  They in turn sold on Knox’s textile, metalwork and other designs to Liberty & Co of London and Paris.

Knox was one of the Silver Studio’s most accomplished designers and in the Summer of 1900 he returned to the Isle of Man, where he worked directly for Liberty as a designer.  It was from this point, perhaps inspired by his local environment, that Knox produced many of the most modern radical designs ever seen.

Among Knox’s most celebrated contributions to design are his Cymric silver for Liberty & Co. Liberty established this range of “Artistic Silver” as their catalogue called it in May 1899.  Some of these early Knox designs are quite historicist in inspiration, lacking any art nouveau influence and illustrate that Knox was still learning his craft as a three dimensional designer. From about 1900 Knox designs for Liberty blossomed.  Probably through a mix of experience, and also perhaps inspired by his return to the Isle of Man in the Summer of 1900.   Knox silver designs had two distinct elements.  Firstly he often used Celtic entrelac (knots) and other Celtic symbols in his work.  This was his take on modern art nouveau, acceptable to the British public, for whom continental art nouveau was seen as rather foreign and sexualised. He was also a true modernist and many of his pieces, with or without Celtic influence, demonstrate the clean lines and geometry we think of as very modern today, and rarely seen in c. 1900 in any media.  His design mantra was captured by a quote from his teaching notes that survives.

“Aim at order, hope for beauty”.

It is worth noting that Knox was not a silversmith and made none of his own designs.  The pieces themselves were made by William Hair Haseler, a Birmingham manufacturer who formed a joint Venture with Liberty.

In around 1902 Liberty launched its Tudric pewter range.  This was designed to be a more affordable range than Cymric silver.  Of Knox’s specific Tudric designs, his mantel clocks, are now considered some of his greatest works.  In keeping with the theme of his Manx inspiration, he produced four very large (c 40 cm high) mantel clocks (commonly now called his “great” clocks) which took inspiration from the ancient standing stones found on the Isel of Man.  Notwithstanding their ancient design inspiration, these are breathtakingly modern examples of his work.

In addition to the Cymric silver range, Knox also produced many jewellery designs for Liberty.  As before his inspiration was typically taken from the Isle of Man.  Liberty used his designs to produce both popular and relatively affordable silver pieces, through to major hand crafted and expensive gold pieces.

Whilst today, Knox is probably most renowned as a designer, he was throughout his life foremostly an accomplished artist, mainly in watercolour. Inspired by the landscapes of the Isle of Man and the natural world around him, Knox’s watercolour paintings capture the beauty and tranquillity of the Isle of Man with remarkable skill and sensitivity.  As one student wrote of Knox:

“He is the man who could paint the wind”

In 1904 Knox returned to the UK where he took up a teaching post at Kingston-on-Thames School of Art.  It is at about this same time that he ceased to work for Liberty as a designer.

At the School all went well until 1912 when Knox fell afoul of a school inspection that criticised him for being too individualistic in his teaching practice and for following the principles of l’Art Nouveau.  In anger, Knox resigned his teaching post and soon after left for America arriving in Philadelphia. Here he began teaching at the Pennsylvania School of Industrial Art and designed rugs for Bromley & Co. of Philadelphia. However his sojourn in America was not successful and within the year he was back in the Isle of Man where he was to remain until his death.

While he was in America Knox’s Kingston students resigned en masse. In an indication of the high esteem in which he was held they, remarkably, formed the Knox Guild of Design and Craft which was to prove an enduring proponent of his work over the next two decades.

From the Isle of Man Knox was to keep in constant contact with the Knox Guild and he exhibited at their annual Arts & Crafts Fair in London and Kingston. He exhibited a large quantity of watercolours at their fairs held at Whitechapel Gallery London in 1921, 1923 and 1925. The director of the National Gallery of Canada spotted his watercolours and arranged a solo exhibition of eighty watercolours in Ottawa at the National Gallery of Canada in 1926.  The exhibition catalogue states that, “Mr Knox is.…in the forefront of English water colour painters today.”

For the last twenty years of his life Knox taught art at the Douglas School of Art and several other schools on the Island. Knox turned his hand to other areas of design and art during his lifetime.  He designed some exquisite Celtic inspired furniture that was mainly for his own use. He also designed gravestones, war memorials and book covers, mainly for those he knew on the Isle of Man.  All beautiful aesthetic Celtic inspired feasts of design.  Most importantly was his life’s work illustrating St Patrick’s story “The Deers Cry” (a nationalist gaelic poem) and the Book of Memoriam, for those Manxmen lost in the Great War.  Today his illustrated manuscripts are regarded as national treasures still housed and exhibited on the Isle of Man.

Knox never married, he was a devout Anglo Catholic and a Freemason. He died in 1933 at the age of 68.  His gravestone at Braddan just outside Douglas, Isle of Man is inscribed:

“Archibald Knox, artist, humble servant of God in the ministry of the beautiful” 

There are many designers and architects who have made their mark on 20th century design but very few are household names.  Of those that started the modern movement and influenced design from the very beginning of the 20th century there are perhaps fewer than ten internationally recognised names.   Of the two most celebrated you would perhaps choose Charles Rennie Mackintosh from Britain and Frank Lloyd Wright from America.   Both of these designers were famous and influential in their own time, and asserted their modernist design philosophy pro-actively both through their work and writings. To this group might also be added icons of the “art nouveau” movement, Lalique, Galle and Tiffany; also household names having placed their signature and brand on every piece of work.

In Knox we have a man who enjoyed none of this recognition.  He was largely unknown in his time, his designs all being attributed to the Regent Street store Liberty & Co, or on occasion Rex Silver, the head of the design studio who supplied Liberty with much of their metalwork designs.  Knox was a reserved man, who made no grand pronouncements about the significance of his work and did not promote his design philosophy publicly.

For those of us that admire Knox, it is his modesty that in part makes him so attractive.  Slowly but surely from around 1975 when the Victoria and Albert Museum staged an exhibition celebrating 100 years of Liberty & Co, Knox’s visibility and acclaim have been rising.

Today, Knox has international recognition and his works are on display in major museums from America to Australia.  Knox has accomplished this purely by the striking qualities of his designs. His work has spoken for him.

This may seem like an obvious question, but before polishing any of your silver, consider what are your objectives in polishing and what do you want the final piece to look like? One person’s aesthetic can differ from another’s, and how far you polish your silver can dramatically alter the appearance of your piece.

Whilst this is subjective, for arts and craft silver I would personally say do not over polish. You really do not want a modern shiny mirror like finish. I like a nice almost grey patina. Patina is not tarnish, it arises from the use of the silver over decades and centuries, forming tiny micro scratches on the silver that dull the surface. In my view you want to retain this through any polishing process. Each time a piece of silver is polished a very small amount of silver is removed. If you wish to preserve the chased and engraved areas of a piece of silver the less polishing that you do the better.

Also consider whether sunken areas of silver (edge of wirework, lowered areas of repousse) require polishing. A good designer or silversmith will have thought about how silver tarnishes and may well want the piece to develop silvery and black contrasts that can give depth and definition to a design.

It is also worth considering whether any of the silver is oxidised. This is a deliberate process of blackening silver using heat and chemicals by the silversmith / designer. An oxidised area of silver should never be polished as you will remove the dark patina and alter the piece’s aesthetic forever. Whilst uncommon, some arts and crafts silver was oxidised, and also it was much used in the slightly earlier aesthetic period. If you are unsure whether an item is heavily tarnished or in fact oxidised, best consult an expert before polishing.

Finally remember that your number one objective is not to break or damage the piece you are polishing. The polishing process places your item at its most vulnerable, take care. Remember that silver is a pretty soft material and that enamels are essentially thin layers of essentially irreparable
glass.

This is not as obvious as it first may seem. Given your priority is to ensure that you cannot damage the silver, I recommend sitting at a table with a soft covering over the table. Since this is likely to get dirty, I recommend old towels or layers of newspaper (or both). Try and avoid standing and polishing.

At some point you are probably going to drop a piece whilst polishing – make sure it can withstand that. Also note that several of the silver polishes recommended below recommend that the room you are polishing in is well ventilated.

How often will depend on how quickly your silver tarnishes. If kept in airtight cabinets or wrapped up, your silver may only need polishing annually or less.  By contrast a piece left open in a room on a sideboard may need polishing every six to eight weeks or so.

How often also depends on how offended you are by a little tarnish. I would suggest with arts and crafts silver it was never meant to be highly polished to a mirror like finish and so live happily with some tarnish. The silver I have that is exposed to air I polish every few months only.

What you must not do is allow your silver to become so tarnished that the tarnish cannot be readily polished off with a cloth. As discussed below, you want to avoid, as far as possible, hard rubbing or abrasive silver polish, so better to polish gently and “often” than rarely and intensely

There are no hard and fast rules, but these are my strongly held personal views. There is a hierarchy to use depending on the nature of the piece and extent of the tarnish.

Any chemical processes including dips

Use these very sparingly. These work by essentially replating the silver chemically. You will lose all tarnish and patina and your piece will look brand new and “wrong”. Some of these processes can also leave the silver looking slightly milky or white.

The main virtue of dipping is that you are not rubbing at delicate chased or engraved areas – this may be a valuable benefit over physical polishing for some pieces. If dip is used, never leave a piece soaking in it but just dip it in, remove it and rinse off under hot water.

This is a fairly specific problem to arts and craft silver. Generally speaking, try and keep polish off stones and enamels. Soft enamel (ie plastic, not fired) will rapidly deteriorate when polished. Some stones (turquoise) are relatively porous and can trap or absorb polish. On a brighter note, hard glass fired enamel and hard semi-precious stones (eg agates) are unlikely to be affected by polishing.

Also be careful not catch your polishing cloth on stone or enamel settings.

Again, this is a fairly specific problem for arts and craft silver. Most of the polishing processes described above will remove the patina on copper. Whatever your preference for silver brightness, you really don’t want shiny arts and crafts copper, so be careful to avoid polishing copper at all with any silver polishing cream or cloth. Using cotton buds can help most accurately keep the polish only on the silver. Simply use a dust cloth for copper.

As already mentioned, a Goddards cloth is fundamental. I also recommend a toothpick or cocktail sticks. To remove tarnish in hard to get to areas I also recommend cotton buds (Q-tips). Use with polish and then without polish to clean off the residue polish and additional tarnish. Using a stiff toothbrush with polish (eg Silvo) can be appropriate for particularly difficult areas of silver to get to (and for which foam is inappropriate) but use sparingly and infrequently as nylon brushes can damage silver.

I recommend you wear gloves when polishing, both to protect your hands and the piece itself – there is no point in polishing a piece to then leave fingerprints all over it. Personally I find plastic “medical” type gloves best. Cotton gloves can get caught on silver and actual polishing mittens (these contain polish like a Goddard’s cloth) are just too cumbersome for any detailed polishing in my view.

Once you have finished polishing, I recommend wiping the piece with a normal cotton cloth. That will remove residue tarnish and polish.

Most silver pieces are easily and quickly polished. The key is simply not to let them get too tarnished, and not to care too much about removing every last area of tarnish. I would say that I can polish most pieces of my silver in well under a minute. However, for some pieces with stones, difficult shapes or copper you do need to take care and to focus thoughtfully on what you are doing.

The views expressed below are my personal views. This is an inherently subjective area and you are most welcome to disagree with my recommendations. If you think there are errors in the above do please get in touch. I and The Peartree Collection Limited accept no liability for any damage that may be caused when you are polishing your silver.

The brands referenced in this document are the UK’s leading brands with which I am familiar and directly experienced. If outside the UK you may have to find equivalent local brands.