From Heritage New Zealand, Spring 2008

by Brian Peet

From Bohemia and the royal houses of Europe to the tiny colonial city of Auckland, Anton Seuffert brought his remarkable cabinet making skill and left a unique legacy

Early New Zealand settlers were generally very resourceful, needing many practical skills and plenty of determination to survive in the harsh new environment in which they found themselves. Nowhere are these attributes better seen than when reviewing the life of cabinetmaker and master craftsman Anton Seuffert (1815-1887).

 Seuffert migrated to New Zealand in 1859, and for the following 28 years created a body of cabinetry featuring marquetry (veneer pictures) and parquetry (veneer geometric designs) using New Zealand woods. In terms of both quantity and quality, no other colonial craftsman came close to his achievements. Now, more than 130 years since his death, interest in his work and that of his sons William, Albert and Carl continues to gather momentum, with private collectors and museums actively seeking examples of Seuffert treasures.

Already some of the best Seuffert pieces feature in Te Papa, the Auckland War Memorial Museum and Canterbury Museum – the only places in this country where his work is on display – as well as the Royal Collection, Australian National Gallery, Sydney Powerhouse Museum, Kew Gardens, Albert & Victoria Museum, Roosevelt Library and British Natural History Museum.

Anton Seuffert was born into a working-class family in Bohemia, probably in 1814 or 1815. As a teenager, he started work for the prestigious firm of Carl Leistler & Sons of Vienna, cabinetmakers to the Austrian Emperor, Francis Joseph I. As one of the best-known firms of its kind in Europe at that time, the company supplied furniture for many of the European royal houses. Anton rose to the position of foreman and went to England on furniture delivery projects to palaces during the reign of Queen Victoria.

In 1851, Leistler & Sons had extensive displays at London’s Great Exhibition, and Anton was tasked with the responsibility of setting up these exhibits. In addition to the formal displays, it was a monumental Gothic Revival bookcase made by Leistler & Sons that attracted particular attention. This was given to Queen Victoria by Francis Joseph I, and is on display in the Victoria & Albert Museum, London. Seuffert was instrumental in the construction of this piece.

The question is often asked why Anton Seuffert, already in his 40s and well established as a craftsman of some importance, should come to the small dirt-road town of Auckland, populated by only 12,000 people and located on the opposite side of the world. The complete answer may never be known, but it must be remembered that Europe in the mid-1800s was politically unstable, with insurrection, revolution and imperial expansionism spreading through many countries. Peasants, industrial workers and middle-class professionals were all agitating for changes to autocratic, royalty-based political systems.

Around this same period, the mid-1840s, New Zealand timbers were arriving on the shores of England, imported by Johann Levien. He had lived and worked in Wellington and was a strong promoter of the qualities of the more decorative New Zealand native timbers. It is known Seuffert and Levien lived quite close to each other in London. Possibly, the prospect of a new life in a country rich in the raw materials dear to the heart of a consummate cabinetmaking craftsman was the reason Anton and Anna Seuffert decided to uproot and sail to New Zealand with their two infant children.

The Seufferts arrived in Auckland on 19 May 1859 in the immigrant ship Caduceus. Anton Seuffert became a naturalised New Zealand citizen in January 1861. The family’s first residence was in Wakefield Street, Auckland, and over the next 10 years five more children were born.

Anton Seuffert commenced his cabinetmaking craft on arrival in Auckland. The first public record of his craftsmanship was published in an Auckland newspaper, where he was described as working on a piece of marquetry furniture intended as a display piece for the 1862 London International Exhibition. At some point during construction, the exquisite cabinet became earmarked for gifting to Queen Victoria from the citizens of the Auckland province. A public subscription was opened and the £300 ($29,000) cost of the cabinet was met by a list of who’s who of colonial Auckland.

As a consequence of a lengthy sea voyage, the cabinet arrived half way through the 1862 London Exhibition and, after public display, remained for the following 146 years as part of the Royal Collection.

Further contact with royalty occurred in 1869, when Queen Victoria’s second son, Prince Alfred, the Duke of Edinburgh, visited New Zealand in his naval role as the captain of the HMS Galatea. As a consequence of manufacturing a bed, a chest of drawers and a work table for the Duke’s use during his 1869 stay, Anton received a Royal Appointment. At this time, he changed the design of his work labels, as well as the spelling of his surname, with the addition of a second “f”.

Adversity was never far from this family, eking out their meagre living in a country short of wealthy clients. Seuffert never owned property, always renting premises, and on one occasion having a table confiscated by his landlord for disputed rent arrears.

Anna regularly advertised laundry washing services in the Auckland papers. However, the Seufferts’ biggest financial disaster occurred when Anton’s workshop and home collapsed (see “As It Happened”), leaving the family destitute, and destroying £800 ($74,500 in today’s dollars) of furniture. For perspective on the significance of this loss, a newspaper of the day advertised a dwelling on four and a half acres (1.8 hectares) in Remuera, Auckland, with an orchard returning £30 ($2800) in income for the mere sum of £450 ($42,000).

The financial impact of the collapse probably affected Seuffert for the remainder of his life. He continued to rent premises and accommodation until he died relatively penniless.

The death of his youngest son, Adolf, from typhoid at the age of 11 further highlighted the precarious nature of colonial life. Anton trained his sons William, Albert and Carl in his craft but only his eldest son, William (1859-1943), developed skills equal to his father's. William continued creating marquetry and parquetry furniture and decorative items into the early 1940s, and his skill was such that it is now virtually impossible to differentiate construction between the work of father and son on many undated items.

William Seuffert’s most important piece of work was a cabinet made for Major-General Robert Baden-Powell. Following the British defence of Mafeking in 1900, during the Boer War, it was decided by a group of Auckland citizens that a suitable presentation should be made to the general in recognition of his efforts in leading that garrison. The cabinet took three years to manufacture, and was paid for by shilling subscriptions from thousands of Aucklanders.

The Baden-Powell commission and the content of press reports relating to the presentation are an interesting reflection on the sensibilities of New Zealand citizenry of the time. To raise a public subscription with the intention of awarding a British Army officer for his efforts in fighting a war in a third country is an unusual act by today’s standards. It is a reminder that England was still “home”. New Zealand was newly settled by Europeans, and the majority of white settlers had either been born in the United Kingdom or had parents who had been born there.

Louis XV escritoire cabinets defined the Seufferts’ craftsmanship, and set the family in a league unlikely to ever be surpassed. It is now thought that they produced nine of these remarkably detailed and intricate specimens from 1865. This represented an astonishing volume in quantity and quality. While the design and dimensions of all the cabinets are virtually identical, the marquetry and carvings vary between all examples. It is known from contemporary newspaper reports and private letters that similar escritoires were made for David Limond Murdoch, Sir Joseph Hooker, Sir George Grey, James Tannock Mackelvie, Archibald Anderson Watt and Captain Henry Burton.

At the time, Seuffert sold these cabinets for £85 ($8000), but a recent private sale saw one apparently exchange hands for $300,000. Small circular tables were the most common examples of the tables Seuffert produced. They featured tops and bases embellished with geometric, star, fern or picture patterns. At approximately 61 centimetres in diameter by 73 centimetres high, they appear to have been intended as drawing or sitting-room furniture.

From a series of 1875 newspaper advertisements, it is known the Seufferts referred to these as card tables, although they were frequently referred to as occasional, side, wine or specimen tables. Fellow German-speaking craftsman Anton Teutenberg is credited with executing the table’s stem carvings, in addition to other Seuffert commissions.

Inlaid boxes of many sizes were another specialty. The larger boxes were designed for the storage of pressed native New Zealand fern specimens. The smaller boxes are similar in design and were used for both jewellery and handkerchief storage. An 1875 newspaper advertisement lists the value of these boxes at £5 ($570). Almost all are rather curiously constructed with kauri bases, rimu sides and rewarewa veneer on the inside of the lids. Another feature is the use of Gothic window inlaid patterns on the sides. It must be remembered that the Gothic Revival movement was at its peak in Europe around the mid-19th century. Bone or ivory keyhole escutcheons are universal to all the boxes.

The smallest in the range were the glove boxes, and in 1875 these were priced at £3 ($340). They differed from the larger boxes by almost always having convex or domed lids, and there was also a greater variety in marquetry design.

The Seufferts’ interest in the flora and fauna of their new country is no better seen than in the production of fern album books containing pressed ferns and timber front and back covers featuring detailed inlay.

The purchasing or gifting of mementoes to visiting dignitaries or officials returning to Europe is thought to have provided the Seufferts with a considerable source of customers. The Victorian English were keen collectors of flora and fauna from the lands of the new world, and Seuffert pressed albums would have been an ideal memento for returning gentlefolk. These albums were easily transported, and would have been a novelty in an English drawing room.

The use of New Zealand imagery is a repeated feature of both Anton and William’s work. Maori iconography, pictorial scenes and botanical images were all sources of inspiration for the Seufferts. The early utilisation of imagery from Anton’s new country would suggest possession of an open mind and a free spirit, seeing him cast off three decades of formal European design influence. The longer he lived in New Zealand, the more his work reflected his new world.

So why were the Seufferts so very good at what they did? On so many levels, their work was head and shoulders above their contemporaries. They combined significant artistic flair with considerable manual dexterity to achieve works of art of unique visual balance and technical accuracy. The professional consistency they brought to their craft can be observed from the smallest, least significant piece right through to the largest most complex escritoire.

The accuracy of the inlay work with virtually invisible glue lines is a constant. Repeat marquetry and parquetry patterns matched perfectly on large designs. Selection of veneer timbers with pleasantly contrasting colours and book matching of figured grain patterns occur as standard. The search for special timbers ranged from firewood piles to totara sent from the South Island and akeake logs from the Chatham Islands.

Overlaid on this was the complete lack of support services Seuffert would have been used to from previous employment in European workshops. Separate teams of individually skilled staff were tasked with timber selection, veneer cutting, component design, inlay design, carcass construction, parquetry bandings, inter cutting marquetry, laying the decorative inlays and finally polishing and engraving the piece.

 

Initially, Anton Seuffert would have had to do all these steps himself, and the Queen Victoria cabinet is the ultimate demonstration of how superbly skilled this Bohemian craftsman really was. As time progressed, his sons would have been of enormous help in his business. It has been estimated that, between the three, there were approximately 160 years of combined labour.

Thanks to that effort and their output, the prospect of many more Seuffert works of art being discovered is extremely good.

 

The Seuffert Legacy by Brian Peet, $95, bookshops, www.seuffert.co.nz or from the author at 7 Otahuri Cres, Auckland 1051.

Brian Peet is a Seuffert descendant who has spent 15 years researching their work.