Liberty & Co Leonard Wyburd clock
SOLD
Code: 10749
A truly superb large oak cased mantel clock with a wide chamfered overhanging architectural top, by Liberty & Co; design
attributed to Leonard Francis Wyburd (1865-1960).
Stunning coloured enamelling to the copper clock face in the form of honesty seed pods to the top, with
intricate Art Nouveau repousse copper design; elaborately intertwined copper monogram lower left
“LFW”.
Further hand beaten raised copper large heart cabouchons to each side. Probably a unique design by
Wyburd for exhibition purposes; c1900.
In 1883, Liberty formally established a Furnishing and Decoration Studio under the direction of Leonard F Wyburd (son of the genre
painter, Francis John Wyburd). This was at the height of the Aesthetic Movement and Wyburd’s successful Arab and Moorish influenced
designs were very fashionable and extremely popular. However, it was in the late 1890s that he began to design the avant-garde furniture
which helped revolutionise furniture design, in England, Austria, Germany and France; “Le Stile Liberty” (indeed Liberty had already
opened a branch in Paris in 1889). By then, the most characteristic Liberty furniture was made in oak, solidly and well constructed in a
style partly based on English rural forms, much of it designed by Wyburd. It was a blend of Art Nouveau, Arts and Crafts, and other
echoes of medieval England.Later Wyburd’s own Wigmore Street Studio, opened after the Liberty’s Studio closed in 1905.
h: 14” d: 8.25” (top), 6” base w: 17.5” (top) 12” base
