ABSTRACT
Arthur Lasenby Liberty was born on August 13, 1843, in the small market town of Chesham in Buckinghamshire. Temporarily he was given a place in his uncle's lace warehouse, and then sent to be a clerk in the warehouse of another uncle who owned a wine business in London. It was, in fact, the first time that the work of Morris, Marshall & Faulkner Company had been publicly exhibited; and the display included a sofa by Rossetti, sideboards and washstand by Philip Webb, tiles by Rossetti, Burne Jones, Webb and Morris; also a substantial range of joiner-made ‘mediaeval’ furniture. The part of the Exhibition that most excited Arthur Liberty was the Japanese section. It was the first time Japan had shown at a European exhibition, and the section included the personal collection of the first British Minister in Japan, Sir Rutherford Alcock: lacquer, bronzes, porcelain, everything exquisitely different from the products of Victorian England.
