'Tudric' tobacco box

This tobacco box was part of the popular ‘Tudric’ range of pewter homewares, manufactured by Liberty & Co. in the early 1900s. It was designed by Archibald Knox, whose distinctive use of stylised organic pattern with expanses of plain metal had been informed by the ideas of the Arts and Crafts movement. For this box, Knox uses a fluid repeating pattern based on plant forms, typical of the Art Nouveau style.

The Tudric range was launched by Liberty’s in 1901 as an affordable alternative to their successful ‘Cymric’ range of silverware. Liberty worked in partnership with W.H. Haseler to develop a metal alloy that replicated ‘the best of old English pewter’. [1] In contrast to the hand-finished Cymic silver range, Tudric pewterwares were produced in large quantities, using iron moulds.

Archibald Knox began working for Liberty’s in the late 1890s, designing homewares, fabrics and jewellery. His designs for the Tudric and Cymric ranges in the early 1900s drew on his specialist knowledge of Celtic art and played an important role in the Celtic revival in the arts in this period. [2]

Related items in the Anderson Collection include a clock and decanter from the Tudric range and a selection of jewellery designed by Archibald Knox for Liberty’s.

Lisa Newby, May 2020

[1] Quote from a 1904 lecture by Arthur Lasenby Liberty on ‘Pewter and the Revival of its Use’. See Barbara Morris, Liberty Design (London: Pyramid Books, 1989), p.91.

[2 Art Nouveau 1890-1914, ed. By Paul Greenhalgh (London: V&A Publications, 2000), p.50.