Posted 10 years ago
kiwipaul
(117 items)
This brooch is unmarked 15ct gold, and is a known Liberty & Co design.
There is a very similar brooch, with its original Liberty Box, on p96 of Liberty Design by Barbara Morris. You can also see a similar pendant in the Tadema Gallery archive, no 4357. The little turned up tips on the honesty buds are seen on each of these pieces.
Tadema Gallery attributes their pendant as designed by Bernard Cuzner for Liberty & Co, which I initially thought was correct, however after the discussion with Jewels1900 below, and further research, I now think this was designed by Archibald Knox.
The second pic above is Knox pendant design 8080 from p.259 of Stephen Martin's book "Archibald Knox", shown on the website of archibaldknoxsociety.com
The pointed design element at the bottom centre of 8080 is seen on a number of Knox pieces, and can be seen on top centre, left, and right of my brooch.
Pendant 8080 also has enamelled "Honesty" leaves, which were a signature Knox design element.
So I've revised my opinion, this brooch was designed by Archibald Knox.
A very pretty brooch.
The flowing symmetry is just beautiful.
Lovely, lovely. I've seen this type of leaf attributed to Cuzner before but I'm not sure why. It is very different to the leaf work you see on signed Cuzner pieces. I guess it could be the difference between a jeweller interpreting his designs and the actual pieces he made.
Also, every signed or clearly attributable piece of Cuzner I've seen is in silver. He is one of my favourite designers.
SO beautiful... I love it.
Another wonderful jewel! I love all your posts Kiwi :-)
There is a very similar pendant that's clearly by the same designer in Tadema Gallery's archive and they confidently attribute it to Cuzner. I'd say their attributions are about as good as it gets.
I see similarities with the Cuzner pieces shown on this page (scroll down), http://chestofbooks.com/crafts/general/Arts-And-Crafts-Magazine/The-Dress-Designers-Exhibition.html#.VFkocTSUfTo and Liberty/Haseler probably had the discretion to produce pieces in gold which their designers originally conceived in silver.
Hi Paul. I know the attribution by Tadema and there's no doubt their piece, yours & the piece in Barbra Morris's book are by the same designer and/or construction method and were retailed by Liberty.
I remember seeing the Tadema example listed as Cuzner and thinking it was a bit of a stretch then. Tadema's a great resource, but they find an attribution for about 90% of their pieces which doesn't tally with the large number of great arts & crafts jewellers & designers who remain undocumented & 'unknown".
There's no doubt there are misattributions and I wonder how many perpetuate themselves and what might be a educated assumption or gut feel becomes fact. Like the Liberty galleon that's always attributed to Cuzner. Is the attribution based on the fact that Cuzner designed for Liberty and is known to make at least one galleon necklace, or is there more? Do you know?
For me, there has to be a design or construction element (the leaf or the shape in this example), that I can link back to an original source, even indirectly. Its a shame Liberty never acknowledged their designers - mind you, it's the speculation (& the beauty) that makes collecting art jewellery fun. Always learning new things.
All the best to YOU & YOURS over the Festive Season KIWIPAUL !!!!!!
Hi Paul, I was just reading that Martin article on Knox you directed me to & noticed a gold ring pictured that has a very similar leaf to your pendant.
The angle of the photo of the ring is different to the photo of your pendant so I couldn't say for sure that they are the same leaf but I think there's a good chance.