C. Hindley and Sons – Aesthetic Movement Walnut Octagonal Side Table

By C. Hindley and Sons, an octagonal side table in walnut aligned to the Aesthetic Movement (1860–1890), c.1880. The design combines an architectural plan with decorative detailing characteristic of late nineteenth-century London cabinet work.

The upper octagonal top sits over shaped aprons supported by eight slender ring turned legs that terminate in small Thebes style feet. A lower octagonal tier is fitted between the legs and contains four opposing drawers. Each pair of drawers retains its original brass handles, with one pair worked in an Aesthetic Movement idiom and the other pair showing a distinct Gothic-influenced pattern. This contrast was deliberately conceived so the table could be oriented to display either handle type on opposing sides. Additional shaped aprons beneath the drawers complete the design and help unify the two-tier arrangement.

The table sits within the broader output of C. Hindley and Sons, who absorbed Miles and Edwards in September 1844, taking over their Oxford Street premises. Records from that period list purchases ranging from a mahogany three-tier whatnot (account reference 14063) estimated at £1.5.0, to a walnut cabriole chair in leopard velvet (reference 14071) at £4.0.0 and a set of Honduras mahogany dining tables (reference 14057) costing £17.10.0. Hindley’s clientele included upper and lower aristocracy, along with a large middle-class base. Commissions were executed for Uppark, Bolton Hall, Himley Hall, Burton Constable, Charlecote Park, Raby Castle and several other notable houses, as well as chintz wall coverings supplied for Buckingham Palace in 1855.

The firm exhibited extensively. At the Great Exhibition of 1851, they showed a large Gothic sideboard inspired by Pugin, illustrated in Microulis, Studies in the Decorative Arts (Spring and Summer 1998), p. 86. At the International Exhibition of 1862, they exhibited a Gothic bookcase and a large sideboard, also illustrated in Microulis, Studies in the Decorative Arts (Spring and Summer 1998), p. 88. Contemporary commentary in the Art Journal Illustrated Catalogue described these works as evidence of sound judgement, advanced taste and skilful workmanship. Additional exhibitions included the Building Trades Exhibition of 1883 at the Agricultural Hall, Islington (The Furniture Gazette, 7 April 1883), Japanese leather papers at the Manchester Fine Art and Industrial Exhibition in 1882, a silver medal for embossed leather wall hangings at the Calcutta International Exhibition of 1883 (The Furniture Gazette, 18 November 1882 and 10 May 1884), exhibits at the second Arts and Crafts Exhibition Society show in 1889 (items 180 and 387), and participation in the Workman’s Exhibition of 1890 at Central Hall, Holborn (The Furniture Gazette, 15 April 1890).