An early Liberty & Co Cymric silver belt buckle designed by Oliver Baker

An early Liberty & Co Cymric silver belt buckle designed by Oliver Baker, cast scrolling foliate form with hammered finish, set with four lapis lazuli cabochons, stamped marks, L & Co, Birmingham 1900, 10cm. wide.

Literature

Modern Design in Jewellery and Fans, The Studio Special, 1901-1902, plate 35 this design illustrated.

Victor Arwas Art Nouveau in Britain From Mackintosh to Liberty, Papadakis, page 96 this example illustrated.

Provenance

Victor Arwas

The Art Nouveau Buckle with Arts and Crafts Christie's South Kensington, 27th November 2007 lot 109 (part).

A private collection of Guild of Handicrafts silver and jewellery.

Catalogue notes

Oliver Baker (1856-1939)

Born in Birmingham, the son of the artist Samuel Henry Baker, Oliver originally trained under his father and at the Birmingham School of Art as a fine artist. He was elected a member of the Royal Birmingham Society of Artists in 1884 before returning to the Birmingham School of Art to learn silver and jewellery making as a mature student meeting and being taught by Georgie Gaskin. His designs for silver and jewellery were sold to William H Haseler who manufactured them, selling them to Arthur Liberty for retail at his store in Regent Street in London. Liberty registered their own hallmark at both the London and Birmingham assay offices in 1899 launching their Cymric range - a range which included many of Oliver Baker's designs - which were influenced by his antiquarian interests. The designs therefore were more in keeping with the Arts and Crafts movement than the more modern Art Nouveau designs produced by Archibald Knox for Liberty & Co,