W. Walker and Sons – Pair of Aesthetic Movement Walnut Serving Buffets
£22,500 / set
Width: 53.94 in (137 cm)
Depth: 21.85 in (55.5 cm)
1880-1889
About this piece
By W. Walker and Sons, London, a pair of walnut serving buffets aligned to the Aesthetic Movement (1860–1890), c.1880. The design combines a formal open structure with characteristic late Victorian surface detailing, expressed through turned elements, shallow carving and small mirrored panels set above the serving surface.
Each buffet is arranged with two turned knob finials above a full-length upper shelf framed by a run of small turned balusters. Below, carved florets alternate with rectangular bevelled mirrors across the back panel, giving depth and visual rhythm to the serving height. A wide top surface is set over two long drawers with brass fittings, the drawer fronts framed with subtle ebonised linear accents. Beneath the drawers sit two open display shelves, the upper shelf slightly recessed and shaped at the front edge and supported by turned side posts. The lower shelf is enclosed by a second turned gallery that mirrors the treatment of the upper section. The whole stands on shaped and incised feet fitted with original brass and ceramic castors. Both buffets retain W. Walker and Sons paper labels inside one drawer.
W. Walker and Sons were established cabinet makers and upholsterers active between 1835 and c.1890. The firm participated in numerous national and international exhibitions during the final quarter of the nineteenth century. Their ornamental satinwood furniture was noted at the 1873 Vienna World Exhibition (The Furniture Gazette, 14 June 1873). At the 1875 Exhibition of Ancient and Modern Furniture, they loaned a sideboard for display (The Furniture Gazette, 3 April 1875). At the 1878 Paris Exhibition, they presented an Anglo Moorish suite designed by R. Davey, including a sideboard of oak, peartree and ebony, illustrated in Meyer (2006), p. 258 and referenced in The Furniture Gazette (1 February 1879). The suite later entered the Birkenhead Collection and is reproduced in The Decorative Arts Society (2012), p. 53.
Further appearances included the 1879 Sydney Exhibition, where they exhibited three furniture suites and produced the walnut showcase for Greenlees Brothers Scotch whiskies (The Furniture Gazette, 5 July 1879). At the 1880 Melbourne Exhibition, they received a first-class order of merit for art furniture (The Furniture Gazette, 29 May 1880; 11 December 1880; 16 and 30 April 1881). They later participated in the 1882 Building Exhibition (wood chimneypieces) and the 1883 Building Trades Exhibition (The Furniture Gazette, 1 April 1882; 7 April 1883).
The last image of a period W. Walker and Son's catalogue showing an almost identical buffet, albeit with a lower cupboard instead of open shelves.
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