It is not only artwork and Chinese vases that can surprise on the auction market! Yesterday the auction house Bruun Rasmussen sold decorative crafts in the saleroom in Bredgade, Copenhagen.
Here a coffee service of silver, designed by the English designer Archibald Knox, took off during the bidding round and ended up with a hammer price of a quarter million Danish Kroner (US$35,6000) against an estimate of 60-80,000 Danish Kroner.
“At the evening’s auction, we offered some of the finest and most coveted Arts & Crafts pieces in the world. It is extremely rare to see items by Archibald Knox in England, and in Denmark it is nearly impossible.
Because of this, the coffee service also attracted international interest, and we are pleased both with the great hammer price and that the bidders included a number of international galleries and collectors that we have not previously seen here at our auctions,” says Peter Kjelgaard, Head of Bruun Rasmussen’s design department.
The coffee service is part of the Archibald Knox series “Cymric” and consists of a coffeepot, milk pot and two small bowls with handles.
All the parts are decorated with precious stones such as carnelian, turquoise and opal. Knox designed the set around 1902-4 for the famous British design company Liberty & Co.
The designer Archibald Knox
Archibald Knox (1864-1933) is a representative of the English Arts & Crafts movement and is internationally recognized for his silver work and carpets.
He worked for many years for Liberty & Co., and his silver works can be seen as an expression of the “Celtic Revival” style.
The Arts & Crafts Movement
Arts & Crafts is a style within art and decorative crafts that originated in England in the final decades of the 1800s as a reaction to the burgeoning industrialization and mass production.
The movement was founded on an idealistic approach to ordinary people’s lives and traditional craftsmanship.
The distinctive stylized and decorative idiom was inspired by medieval Europe and Islamic culture.
One of the movement’s most famous names is the designer William Morris, whose fabrics and wallpapers became part of design history, and even to this day his work resonates in interior design worldwide.
