Archibald Knox

Christie’s London, October 26, 2010, lot 28
Acquired from the above by the present owner

Liberty Pewter Sketch Book, Westminster City Archives, London, n.d., p. 56, no. 097
Mervyn Levy, Liberty Style, The Classic Years, 1898-1910, London, 1986, p. 49
Imagining an Irish Past: The Celtic Revival 1840-1940, exh. cat., The David and Alfred Smart Museum of Art, University of Chicago, Chicago, 1992, no. 29, p. 52, cat no. 55
Stephen A. Martin, ed., Archibald Knox, London, 1995, p. 90
The Liberty Style, exh. cat., Japan Art & Culture Association, Tokyo, 1999, p. 113, no. 167
Adrian J. Tilbrook, The Designs of Archibald Knox for Liberty & Co, London, 2000, p. 107, fig. 89
Stephen A. Martin, Archibald Knox, London, 2001, p. 235

Knox’s most iconic design in pewter, the cross clock is directly inspired by Manx crosses and the Celtic-Christian ‘spirit of Man.’ Ornamented with pewter flanges flanking its tall, robust body that extend a third of the way down from its gently rounded rectangular crown, the resulting cruciform design is undoubtedly Christian in character. The combination of the sacred cruciform shape, its size and then its unexpected numbered face, give this clock an almost mystical feeling.  By juxtaposing the soft sheen of unadorned inorganic metal with inlays of abalone shell, a material from the living world, Knox brings together the notion of the eternal and the temporal in a way that transcends a ‘secular’ sense of time. He seems to have added a layer of metaphoric meaning suggesting the fragility of our shimmering, time-limited, human life that floats upon, and is reflected in the monumentality of the Lord's sacrifice and redemption. This is indeed art made majestic and profound.