Biscuit box, 'Tudric'

This arts and crafts style biscuit box was designed by Archibald Knox, one of the most important designers employed by the London department store Liberty Co.

Archibald Knox
Born on the Isle of Man, Knox's Celtic background strongly influenced his work. This biscuit box was sold by Liberty Co as part of their 'Tudric' range of pewter. Owing to Liberty Co's deliberate policy of keeping its designers anonymous, it is only recently that Knox's contribution to the company has been understood. He designed silver, jewellery, pewter, pottery, and textiles for Liberty Co.

Liberty Co
Liberty Co was founded by Arthur Lasenby Liberty in 1875 as a shop specialising in Oriental and Japanese goods. However, the shop also sold furniture, textiles, and decorative items for the home in a variety of European historical styles popular in England at the time. From the mid 1880s, Liberty Co began to employ designers to create patterns and objects specifically for the store in the increasingly popular arts and crafts and art nouveau styles.

Arts and crafts
While arts and crafts philosophy dictated that objects should be handcrafted, from the turn of the twentieth century Liberty Co increasingly began to partner with manufacturers to mass-produce its goods. For example, from 1901 Liberty Co had its metalwork manufactured in Birmingham by W H Haseler, which made this biscuit box. Haseler used machinery to emulate the hammered effects usually created by handcrafting. In doing this, Liberty Co played a part in the spreading the popularity of the arts and crafts style, while also undermining it by being able to sell its goods at a cheaper price than labour-intensive handcrafted work in the same style.

Walter Cook
This biscuit box is from the Walter C Cook Collection of Decorative Arts. Over a twenty-five year period, Wellington collector Walter Cook developed a significant collection of British and European decorative arts. In 1993 he gave his collection to the National Museum, now known as Te Papa.