Small Sideboard Designed By Peter Hayward For Vanson 1954

Small sideboard designed by Peter Hayward for Vanson 1954.

This lovely decorative sideboard with marquetry front was introduced by Vanson in 1954. In recent years everyone has assumed its a Robert Heritage design as he designed for W.G.Evans ( trade name Vanson ) in the early 1950’s, but Peter Hayward then became their main designer in about 1953/54. It’s illustrated in The Cabinet Maker in February 1954 where it says ”so much in demand the firm will be kept busy for a long time is a new dining set in sapele mahogany, designed by Peter Hayward”. Sapele is a stripy wood light coloured mahogany which was used for the top and sides and then cleverly mixed with a light satin coloured wood which wasn’t named in the short article. At the time lots of exotic and little used wood veneers were popular with high end makers. Whatever the “satin” wood is it makes a striking contrast to the darker sapele.

Peter Hayward designed a lot for Vanson in the late 1950’s and early 60’s as well as for Uniflex and some others . Along with Robert Heritage, Frank Guille, Nigel Walters and Dennis Young he was featured in long articles in The Cabinet Maker in the late 1950’s as he was considered to be one of the most influential British designers of the time.

Condition
Cleaned and totally re-polished. Apart from one dark mark on the back edge of the top which is shown in 1 of the photos there are no obvious marks, scratches or other damage. As with all vintage furniture you must expect to see some minor signs of wear if you look very closely.

Notes
W.G.Evans was a successful small/medium sized quality maker in the 1950’s who seem to have lost their way in terms of design by the mid 1960’s. For a number of years they made most if not all of the Cadovius teak wall systems sold in the UK for Cado of Denmark which says something about their high standards of cabinet making in the 1960’s and early 1970’s. We have original late 1960’s brochures showing this latter link which is not often known today.