Jacket, performance costume jacket

Jacket, part of a clown suit worn by Whimsical Walker (1851-1934), who worked as a clown in both circus and pantomime. Born Thomas Walker, he first appeared in 1865 and subsequently worked in England and America. In 1886, he appeared by royal command before Queen Victoria at Windsor Castle. This outfit was his best harlequin suit, and Walker wore it over a period of at least thirty years at Olympia as head clown, and in panto at Drury Lane.

Walker's act was popular with generations of children. In 1928 Dame Laura Knight recorded his appearance in her oil painting, Whimsical Walker and His Buffer, which shows him in this costume with his circus dog or 'buffer'. The artist and performer met and made friends in the 1920s when Walker was working at Olympia for Bertram Mills' and Carmo's circuses, and Knight helped the London Museum acquire the ensemble from Walker's widow. Walker's props were those of the traditional clown: a string of sausages, a goose, and a red-hot poker.

The jacket is made of a sturdy double-knit white cotton jersey. Decorative patterns and spots cut from fine wool fabric are appliqued with machine stitching, with raw edges. Some have come off. There are pleated frills of white cotton plain weave material around the neck, cuffs, and diagonally down the front, meeting at the waist. Each frill is edged with blue and red woollen braid and the pleats are caught down. The neck and cuff edges are decorated with red wool ricrac braid, and the neck is bound in cotton tape. The tops of the sleeves are made of seven loose cotton frills, edged with red wool braid except for two which are blue. The jacket closes down the front with a row of bone buttons and a concealed buttonhole band of white plain cotton, with handmade buttonholes. Most of the construction is machine stitched with hand finishing. Inside, there are tabs of white cotton with vertical buttonholes for attaching the matching breeches of the suit.