Background
Wyburd was the son of the painter Francis John Wyburd (1829–1909) and Jemima Wyburd née Corbould (1840–1913).
- Photos
- Works
- Photos
- Works
Leonard Wyburd
Edit ProfileCareer
He was broadly part of the Arts & Crafts movement, and the head of Liberty"s Furnishing and Decoration Studio from its foundation in 1883 until he left in 1903. In 1883, it established a "Furnishing and Decoration Studio" under the direction of Wyburd, then aged only 18. Wyburd"s Spanish Moorish and Arab-influenced furniture designs proved to be both fashionable and popular.
By the late 1890s, Wyburd was at the forefront of European furniture design, combining elements of Art and Crafts, Art Nouveau and other medieval English allusions.
Liberty furniture was typically of solid oak or mahogany, well yet simply made, sometimes with small cut-outs, stained glass insets or elaborate beaten copper hinges. Wyburd"s designs were often given Saxon or Scottish names.
One was the Athelstan chair, of around 1899. The Liberty Studio closed in 1905, but Wyburd had already left in 1903 to establish his own Wigmore Street studio in London.
His later commissions included redesigning the drawing room at Rosslyn Tower, Street John"s Avenue, Putney, London.
He also created a design for an interior at Riverside House in 1904 which featured a selection of typical Arts and Crafts furniture. lieutenant has been said that but for his apparent reluctance to seek recognition for his work, he might today have the same level of recognition as Charles Voysey and Baillie Scott. In later life, Wyburd was a London antique dealer, which trade he carried on for many years.
