Sir Colin and Lady Anderson were among the first British collectors of art nouveau . The first pieces were bought in 1960, the last in 1971. During this decade the Andersons acquired according to style rather than value, forming a collection that includes not only pieces by leading exponents of art nouveau such as the American Louis Comfort Tiffany and the Frenchmen Emile Galle and Rene Lalique, but also inexpensive commercially produced items by unknown designers.
The Anderson Collection most fully represents the French exponents of art nouveau associated with the Ecole de Nancy and makers who, both in France and Britain, worked across a range of disciplines such as glassware and furniture, metalware and jewellery.
The term art nouveau is used to describe a group of national styles that flourished in Europe and America between 1890 and 1905.
The metalwork in the collection is largely by British or German makers, many of whom retailed their work at Liberty & Co. The collection includes some items that had been inherited by Sir Colin and Lady Anderson.
Liberty & Co’s policy of not crediting individual designers sometimes makes it difficult to identify the work of specific makers. However, there are two examples of Archibald Knox’s Tudric ware in the Collection. Tudric ware was introduced by Liberty & Co as a more affordable alternative to the highly successful Cymric range of jewellery and silverware.
On the basis of style, this inkstand has been attributed to Werttembergische Metallwarenfabrik (W.M.F), exponents of the German Art Nouveau Jugendstil (Youth style) designs. Designers at the W.M.F. adapted into commercially desirable commodities archetypal Art Nouveau motifs such as female figures with flowing hair and trailing foliage and flowers. This inkstand features a maiden seated at the ‘pool’ of her inkwell.

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