JEWELLERY, DECORATIVE & FINE ARTS AUCTION Tuesday, 16 September 2025 / 10:00 am start

The original Waikato Brewery artwork 'Willie the Waiter' by Richard Abnett,

Lot Details

ink and watercolour painting. Painted 1945 when Richard (Dick) Abnett was the resident artist at the Waikato Brewery. 203 x 150mm. Vendor's provenance: 'This was Given to my father, Don Laurence, in 1970’s'. He was an engraver in Hamilton in Hood Street – Laurence Engraver’s Ltd. and a friend of the manager of the Waikato Brewery. My father produced the moulds for the tie pins and other items throughout the years. The Willie the Waiter design was changed and simplified to create the pins - The hair strips on Willie were removed, the shoes where more pointed, the bottles were black. Note: This image was based on a real waiter, William T. Walter, who worked at the Innes Family Waikato Brewery. It is thought that the Innes Family Waikato Brewery was the first brewery to be fully owned by a woman (Mary Jane Innes) in New Zealand.