Sir Arthur Lasenby Liberty (13 August 1843 – 11 May 1917) was a London-based merchant, and the founder of
Liberty & Co.
Early life
Arthur Liberty was born on 13 August 1843 in
Chesham,
Buckinghamshire
Buckinghamshire (), abbreviated Bucks, is a ceremonial county in South East England that borders Greater London to the south-east, Berkshire to the south, Oxfordshire to the west, Northamptonshire to the north, Bedfordshire to the north-ea ...
, England, the son of a draper. He began work at sixteen with an uncle who sold lace, and later another uncle who sold wine. By 1859 he was apprenticed to a draper, but he instead took a job at Farmer and Rogers, which specialised in women's fashions. He quickly rose to the post of manager of the warehouse.
Liberty & Co.
After Farmer and Rogers refused to make him a partner in their business, Liberty, in 1875, opened his own shop,
Liberty & Co., in
Regent Street
Regent Street is a major shopping street in the West End of London. It is named after George, the Prince Regent (later George IV) and was laid out under the direction of the architect John Nash and James Burton. It runs from Waterloo Place ...
,
London. There he sold ornaments, fabrics and miscellaneous
objets d'art from the
Far East.
Liberty & Co. initially provided an eclectic mix of popular styles, but went on to develop a fundamentally different style closely linked to the Aesthetic Movement of the 1890s,
Art Nouveau
Art Nouveau (; ) is an international style of art, architecture, and applied art, especially the decorative arts. The style is known by different names in different languages: in German, in Italian, in Catalan, and also known as the Modern ...
(the "new art"). The company became synonymous with this new style to the extent that in
Italy, Art Nouveau became known as ''Stile Liberty'' after the London shop. The company's printed and dyed fabrics, particularly
silks and
satins, were notable for their subtle and
"artistic" colours and highly esteemed as dress material, especially during the decades from 1890 to 1920.
Arthur Liberty married first Martha Cottam in 1865, from whom he obtained a divorce in 1869 on the grounds of her adultery and second, Emma Louise Blackmore in 1875. They had no children. He was knighted in 1913.
Death and legacy
Liberty died on 11 May 1917. Before he died, Liberty had amassed a small fortune as a majority shareholder in Liberty & Co. (It had become a public limited liability company in 1890.) He left a manor house, several cottages and a large area of farmland near his birthplace in Buckinghamshire.
[http://jrose.dynip.com/family/archives/documents/correspondence/email/00-04-12_Liberty_et_al_Part_I.HTM ]
His gravestone was designed by
Archibald Knox, one of
Liberty & Co.'s long-standing designers.
References and sources
;References
;Sources
*Levy, Mervyn (1986) ''Liberty Style, The Classic Years, 1898–1910''. New York: Rizzoli.
External links
Arthur Liberty and the Evolution of the Liberty StyleHistory of Liberty & Co.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Liberty, Arthur Lasenby
1843 births
1917 deaths
British businesspeople
High Sheriffs of Buckinghamshire
People from Chesham
Knights Bachelor
19th-century British businesspeople