Archibald Knox

Who was Archibald Knox?

Archibald Knox, was a Manx art nouveau designer of Scottish descent.

Knox's father, William Knox, was living in Kilbirnie when he married Ann Carmichael from Lismore Island in 1853. They had moved to the Isle Of Man in 1856 with their firstborn, Robert where William "an exceptionally ingenious cabinet and machine-maker, joined Moore’s Tromode Works, makers of high quality herring nets and sailcloth." William's sister Margaret had been the first Knox to move to Man when she married a Manx fisherman, William Callister in 1856. William Knox later started his own firm "William Knox’s Engineering Works" and was joined in his enterprise by four of his sons - Archibald pursuing his own career in art. Besides running a successful steamboat and ferry business, the Knox family were pioneers in industrial electric lighting on Man and introduced the first motor car to the island.

Archibald, the Knoxs' 5th child, started his schooling at St. Barnabas Elementary School, and later attended Douglas Grammar School and Douglas School of Art, developing a lifelong interest in Celtic art. His designs for Liberty's made him a household name, as did his watercolours, graphic designs and fonts. His design talent covered a wide range of objects, ornamental and utilitarian, and included silver and pewter tea sets, jewellery, inkwells, boxes, gravestones and even bank cheques, much for Liberty's Tudric and Cymric ranges. The gravestone of Liberty's founder, Arthur Lasenby Liberty, was designed by Knox.