{"product_id":"the-invisible-designer-cadence-shelley-9798197087263","title":"The Invisible Designer: Archibald Knox, Liberty of London, and the Hidden Hand of British Art Nouveau","description":"One designer. Hundreds of objects. No name on a single one.\u003cp\u003eFor four years before the world ever heard of him, \u003cb\u003eArchibald Knox\u003c\/b\u003e was the most influential designer in the British Empire - and almost no one knew his name. From a cottage on the Isle of Man, he sent hundreds of drawings to \u003cb\u003eLiberty of London\u003c\/b\u003e: silver teapots, pewter clocks, jewellery boxes, inkwells, the celebrated \u003cb\u003eCymric and Tudric ranges\u003c\/b\u003e that filled every fashionable Edwardian home. Liberty signed none of them. Knox was paid by the design, not the credit.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThis is the story of how a cabinet-maker's son from a village no Londoner could find on a map invented the visual language of British Art Nouveau - and what it cost him to do it anonymously.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eDrawing on Manx archives, the V\u0026amp;A's collection records, surviving studio drawings rescued by his students, and a century of patient scholarship, \u003ci\u003eThe Invisible Designer\u003c\/i\u003e traces Knox from the carved Celtic crosses of his island childhood to the West End showrooms that hid his name, to the Kingston classroom where he resigned in protest, to the quiet later years of watercolours, illuminated devotional manuscripts, and gravestones that ended his career where it began: on Mann.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIt's a book about Celtic Revival ornament and Edwardian commerce. It's also a book about authorship, anonymity, and what it takes to recover a name once a system has erased it.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eFor readers of: \u003c\/b\u003e Edmund de Waal's \u003ci\u003eThe Hare with Amber Eyes\u003c\/i\u003e, Fiona MacCarthy's \u003ci\u003eWilliam Morris: A Life for Our Time\u003c\/i\u003e, and anyone who has ever stood in front of a piece of Liberty pewter and wondered who actually designed it.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003e\"Knox does not become greater if doubtful objects are dragged into his catalogue. He becomes clearer when the reader understands why his authorship is sometimes secure, sometimes probable, and sometimes only part of a broader Liberty style.\"\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e Cadence Shelley\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-13:\u003c\/b\u003e 9798197087263\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Independently Published\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eLanguage:\u003c\/b\u003e English\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 05\/15\/2026\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 282\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFormat:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 0.84lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 9.00h x 6.00w x 0.59d","brand":"Cadence Shelley","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":48659916325119,"sku":"9798197087263","price":18.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"url":"https:\/\/www.whiterainbookhouse.com\/products\/the-invisible-designer-cadence-shelley-9798197087263","provider":"WR Book House","version":"1.0","type":"link"}