On the Isle of Man, the secret history of designer Archibald Knox is revealed

He may have died almost 100 years ago, but Archibald Knox is the Isle of Man’s most famous designer. His Art Nouveau silverware, his Arts and Crafts furniture, his Manx-engraved jewellery and headstones and his delicate watercolours can be found all over the island, not least at the Manx Museum in Douglas.

Here, the largest ever show of Knox’s work brings together more than 200 pieces. Big hitters are the collectible silver clocks and cigarette boxes, tea caddies, ink wells and tableware, created for Silver Studio and sold in Liberty of London between 1899 and 1906. Although unsigned, they are coveted by international museums and fetch six figures at auction. (Brad Pitt is such a big collector, he allegedly named his son after the late designer.) The ‘Cymric’ and ‘Tudric’ ranges, with their Art Nouveau flourishes and Celtic engravings became best sellers, and after a spell in London, Knox worked remotely from his country cottage on the island, sending designs to the capital via the steam packet boats that crossed the Irish Sea to England every day.

When, in 1906, the Celtic Revival style fell out of fashion, the work for Liberty fell away, and Knox moved to London once more to teach. But in 1912, the Isle of Man drew him back. A prolific polymath, he became the island’s lead artist, creating furniture and letterheads, shop fronts, interiors and illustrations.

‘You cannot understand Archibald Knox and embrace his designs without understanding where they came from,’ says Katie King, curator of the exhibition. ‘The island was his muse.’ He belonged to a group of Victorian gentlemen, antiquarians and dilettantes, with fine moustaches, who were proud of their Manx heritage and set out to preserve it.

For the pace of change in Knox’s day was rapid. When Knox left the Douglas School of Art aged 16, the island was a thriving tourist destination. Half a million tourists a year came to embrace its natural beauty. ‘It was a very exciting time, says King. ‘Hotels, dance floors and entertainment venues were built to entertain tourists, and these needed painting, so artists came flocking. There was a flourishing art scene.’

Knox was in the middle of it. He translated the Isle of Man's ancient memorial stones, with their intricate interlacing, into motifs that appeared on books and buttons, letterheads, wallpapers and textiles. These particular crosses – and Knox’s interpretations of them – are uniquely Manx. The stones date back to the 11th and 12th centuries, when Norse immigrants settled on the island and developed their own styles that rebound all the way back to Scandinavia

During the First World War, Knox worked as a postal censor at Knockaloe, Britain’s largest internment camp. It was used during both wars to house enemies of the state, but the role enabled Knox to carry on painting his beloved glens, gullies and skies. It is said that Scottish designer Charles Rennie Mackintosh posted his designs to prisoners in the camp to have them made there. ‘There is no evidence that the two men were friends,’ says King. ‘But it is highly likely that their paths would have crossed, as the connections between the schools of art in Douglas and Glasgow were strong.’

Knox may have been famous on the island and admired in Arts and Crafts circles (he created Arthur Liberty's gravestone in 1917), but he never reached the giddy heights of contemporaries such as Christopher Dresser or William Morris. He was also intensely private, never married and burned and destroyed much of his work. Manx National Heritage and the Archibald Knox Forum have been collecting what’s left of his life and work since his death, in 1933, and the exhibition will form part of a wider ‘Isle of Knox’ campaign, with associated events, walks and talks taking place all year.

Successfully remaining an enigma on an island that is only 32 miles long and 14 miles wide is another of Knox’s many achievements, and the exhibition throws up many questions. But by celebrating his life and legacy, the hope is that Knox will become as synonymous with the Isle of Man as Charles Rennie Mackintosh is with Glasgow.

‘Knox: Order & Beauty’ runs until 1 March 2026, Manxnationalheritage.im