Robert Walker Charleston cabinetmaker

Magazine Antiques, Feb, 2003 by Bradford L. Rauschenberg, John Bivins

The Museum of Early Southern Decorative Arts (MESDA) has published the much-anticipated three-volume The Furniture of Charleston, 1680-1820, written by Bradford L. Rauschenberg and the late John Bivins Jr. Robert Walker is one of 679 craftsmen whose works are the subject of this book. Gary J. Albert, director of publications at Old Salem/MESDA and the editor of the book, has drawn the present article and its illustrations from it.

Charleston, South Carolina, records from 1795 to 1833 abound with references to Robert Walker, one of the city's most successful cabinetmakers. His prominence rivaled that of Thomas Elfe (1719-1775) thirty years earlier. Walker's work is identified by the existence of at least three labeled or inscribed pieces and more than five unmarked case pieces. Walker was born on January 24, 1772, in Cupar, County Fife, Scotland. (1) At the age of twenty, he inscribed the title page of his 1791 edition of Thomas Sheraton's Cabinet-Maker and Upholsterer's Drawing-Book "Robert Walker Cupar Fife No. Britain/1792" (Pl. V). He inscribed the back cover "Robert Walker New York 1793," and, using a metal stamp similar to one for marking tools, he impressed his name at the center of the outside front cover (Pl. III), at the head of the title page, and at the head of the page following the table of contents. Also on the latter page is "Rob. Walker" twice, made with an inked stamp.

Walker's copy of the 1793 edition of The Cabinet-Makers' London Book of Prices has now disappeared, but Bradford Rauschenberg examined it in 1979 when it was still in the possession of the Walker family He recorded the inscription at the top of the title page: "Robt. Walker Cupar 20th Augt. 1793/Scotland" (Fig. 2). At the top of the "Index" page there appears "Robt. Walker Cabinet Maker! New York North America/2Oth October 1793--" (Fig. 4). From this inscription it can be deduced that Walker entered the port of New York on October 20, 1793. Page one of the book is inscribed "Robt. Walker Octr. 1st. Novr 1795/Charleston/South Carolina/North America," which suggests that Walker was first in Charleston in October 1795. This is verified by an entry for December 15, 1800, in a petition to the Charleston General Assembly regarding electoral qualifications. Walker was asked: "How long did you reside in Charleston previously to the late election and where is your general place of residence [?]" To this he replied: "r esided in Charleston since October 1795 [,] residence Broad St[.]" (2)

On June 13, 1799, Robert Walker became a United States citizen. (3) It is possible that he worked as a journeyman in one of the Scottish cabinetmaking shops until he was listed in Nelson's Charleston Directory of 1801 at 57 Broad Street. (4) Since no other cabinetmaker was listed at the same address, it is apparent that he was working alone before 1801. From July 1801 to April 1803, Walker is listed at 39 Church Street in partnership with Charles Watts. Like Walker, Watts had worked in New York City before moving to Charleston about 1790. (5)

The earliest piece of furniture attributed to Walker, an unusual press on chest (Pl. I), was probably made before Walker's partnership with Watts, for it is constructed entirely with wrought finishing nails rather than the cut nails one would expect to find at the turn of the nineteenth century. It is probable that the press on chest represents work produced during Walker's association with a large Scottish cabinetmaking shop in Charleston, such as that of John Watson (1751-1812) or Thomas Wallace (1758-1816).

The tall French feet of the press on chest are not a familiar form in the United States, as they certainly were in Britain. Walker's favored design source, The Cabinet-Makers' London Book of Prices, illustrates this type of base on an elaborate dressing table (Fig. 1). The entire surface of the press on chest is a remarkable display of colorful veneers and inlays. Complementing the bookmatched crotch mahogany veneers of the panels and drawer faces are the cross-grained rosewood facings of the finial plinth, doorframes, and drawer banding. It represents the most lavish use of rosewood veneer known on any Charleston surface with the exception of the sounding board of Saint Michael's pulpit, which dates from around 1760. The superb dark-ground floral patera of the tablet in the finial plinth (Pl.II) exceeds the quality of most of the British-type floral inlay found on Carolina low-country furniture, even very elaborate compositions such as the floral plaques on the Alston sideboard in the Yale University Art Gal lery. (6) The dramatic shading of the leaves and ribbon and the intricate detail of the rosebud indicate that the cost of this inlay was well beyond the usual run of ornament. This patera could be British, but it is equally possible that it was made in New York City where paterae of this shape were not unusual.

Common to Walker's furniture, and probably typical of other Scottish shops in Charleston, is the crown molding of the press on chest, which consists of a bold ovolo molding over a cavetto, and is repeated at the top of the base. The generous fillet at the top of the principal cove of the cornice is finished with a two-color mouse-tooth banding. The cabinet doors in the base conceal a tier of three drawers on each side, all of which retain their original "peace" brasses with their brilliant gold varnish intact (see Pl. IV).