Sir Arthur Lasenby Liberty (August 13, 1843–May 11, 1917) was a London merchant. Born in Chesham, Buckinghamshire, England, the son of a draper, he began work at sixteen with his uncle who sold lace, and later, another uncle who sold wine. By 1859 he was appprenticed to a draper, but he instead took a job at Farmer and Rogers which specialized in women's fashions. He quickly rose to manager of the warehouse. is the 225th day of the year (226th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1843 (MDCCCXLIII) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian Calendar (or a common year starting on Friday of the 12-day slower Julian calendar). ... is the 131st day of the year (132nd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1917 (MCMXVII) was a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar (see link for calendar) or a common year starting on Tuesday of the 13-day slower Julian calendar (see: 1917 Julian calendar). ... , Chesham is a market town in the Chiltern Hills, Buckinghamshire, England. ... Buckinghamshire (abbreviated Bucks) is one of the home counties in South East England. ...

After Farmer and Rogers refused to make him a partner in their business, in 1875, he opened his own shop, Liberty & Co. in Regent Street, London. There, he sold ornaments, fabrics and miscellaneous art objects from the Far East. Liberty is a well known department store in Regent Street in central London, England at the heart of the West End shopping district. ... The Quadrant at the bottom of Regent Street. ... This article is about the capital of England and the United Kingdom. ... The far east as a cultural block includes East Asia, Southeast Asia, Northeast Asia and South Asia. ...

Liberty & Co. first catered for an eclectic mixture of popular styles, but then went on to develop a fundamentally different style closely linked to the aesthetic movement of the 1890s called Art Nouveau (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 selection of printed and dyed fabrics, particularly silks and satins, were noted for their range of subtle and "artistic" colors and were highly esteemed as dress fabrics, especially during the decades from 1890 to 1920. The 1890s were sometimes referred to as the Mauve Decade, because William Henry Perkins aniline dye allowed the widespread use of that colour in fashion, and also as the Gay Nineties, under the then-current usage of the word gay which referred simply to merriment and frivolity, with no... Vitebsk Railway Station one of the finest examples of Art Nouveau architecture. ... For other uses of this word, see Silk (disambiguation). ... Satin used in bedding Structure of silk satin Look up Satin in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ...

Arthur Liberty married Emma Louise Blackmore in 1875. They had no children. 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 acrage of farmland near his birthplace in Buckinghamshire.[1] He was knighted in 1913.

References

Levy, Mervyn (1986) Liberty Style, The Classic Years, 1898-1910; Rizzoli, New York.

External links

• Arthur Lasenby Liberty and the Evolution of the Liberty Style
• History of Liberty & Co.