Price range:  £3,250

For sale is this exceptionally rare original pen and ink illustration by Archibald Knox.  The illustration reads as “Savoy Programme” and not only provides an excellent example of Knox’s Celtic style but also, charmingly, includes several of his rare bird sketches.  I believe the bird are swallows.

The illustration dates to c 1910 when, based on surviving sketches, Knox was asked to do a number of designs for Simpsons of the Strand and the Savoy Hotel.  The reference to “Programme Savoy” undoubtedly refers to the Savoy Theatre which at about this time held regular and popular reviews that it called “programmes”.

The provenance for this sketch is impeccable.  It was acquired at auction from a de-accession by the Coe Arts Centre Sante Fe in 2024.  The Center’s principle  benefactor Ralph Coe acquired the piece from John Jesse in c 2000 (gifted to the Coe Center in 2011). John Jesse acquired it from Dr Stephen Martin in the 1990’s. Dr Stephen Martin acquired it directly from Rosemary Wren, the daughter of Archibald Knox’s pupil and long-standing supporter Denise Wren, nee Tuckfield, in around 1995.

Denise Tuckfield, of the Knox Guild, married Henry Douglas Wren on 2nd April, 1915, and at that time Wren was employed as personal assistant to Sir Rupert D’Oyley Carte, who owned the Savoy Hotel. It is possibly through this connection that Knox obtained commissions for his design work at the Savoy Hotel and related establishments.

Maker: Archibald Knox

Designer: Archibald Knox

Date : c. 1910

Marks: NA

Material: Pen and ink on paper

Condition: Excellent, some dirt/marks to paper

Size: Visible within border: 17.5 x 12.75 cm Frame: 37 x 32 cm

Weight : NM