Page 58 - Constructing Craft

Wood

An abundance of wood made New Zealand an ideal location for wood craft of all
types to flourish following the arrival of European settlers. The Jurors at the

International Exhibition in Dunedin in 1865 noted: ‘The numerous ornamental woods
with which New Zealand abounds, afford great scope for the exercise of the higher

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efforts in cabinet-work, and for the display of decorative art in furniture’. However,
handmade furniture was often associated with inferior quality in the minds of

settlers. The basic furniture made for settler cottages was craft of necessity and was

therefore given a lesser value than even low-cost factory produced furniture made
in New Zealand and was certainly further down the scale when compared to items

imported from Britain. Nevertheless, the range of furniture products, from the most

basic to exhibition quality, demonstrated that a respectable tradition of furniture-
making existed in New Zealand from the time that Europeans first colonised the

country – although Peter Cape still located woodwork, including furniture, amongst
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the ‘humble arts’ in his 1980 book on craft.

Among the most respected of the early wood craftsmen was Anton Seuffert,

known before 1869 as Anton Seufert. Seuffert was born in Bohemia, probably in

1814 or 1815, and married Anna Piltz in London. The couple arrived in Auckland in
1858 or 1859 with two children, and four other children were born after their arrival.

In 1861 Seuffert became a naturalised New Zealander and he spent the rest of his
life in Auckland. During 1861 and 1862 he made a writing cabinet, inlaid with New

Zealand woods, “consisting of 30,000 pieces, valued at 300 guineas, which was
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purchased and presented by the citizens of Auckland to her Majesty the Queen”. It
can still be found in Buckingham Palace, London. His work was notable for the use

of many different types of native timber bound together to create pictures and
designs and inserted into furniture and other wooden items by inlaying them. His

son, William, who by 1911 was describing himself as a ‘wood artist’, continued to

produce high quality items made in a similar style well into the twentieth century.

Constructing Craft