Anton Seuffert
Encyclopedia
Marquetry
Marquetry is the art and craft of applying pieces of veneer to a structure to form decorative patterns, designs or pictures. The technique may be applied to case furniture or even seat furniture, to decorative small objects with smooth, veneerable surfaces or to freestanding pictorial panels...
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Anton Seuffert, also known as Anton Seufert, learned his craft from his father, Anton Seufert senior, who was also a cabinetmaker. Seuffert worked in Vienna for the Austrian furniture manufacturing company Leistler, rising to the position of foreman. He was sent by his firm to England in order to assemble furniture for the royal places and also to set up the firm's large display of luxury wooden furniture for the Great Exhibition of 1851 in London. He stayed in England for several years and married Anna Piltz in 1855 or 1856. He emigrated to New Zealand with his wife and two children, Josefieni, and William, and arrived in Auckland on 19 May 1859. The family settled in Auckland and increased by a further five children. Juliena was born in November 1860, Augusta Amelia in August 1862, Albert in October 1864, Charles Antonis in April 1867 and the youngest Adolf Herman in October 1869. Adolf died of typhoid fever at 11 years of age.
For nearly thirty years Seuffert made fine furniture for the houses of weathly families in New Zealand and overseas experimenting with and using the native timbers of New Zealand. It is possible that he first became familiar with New Zealand timbers while he was in London through his contact with Johann Levien who had spent several years in New Zealand. Certainly the demands of the marquetry technique ensured that Sueffert became an expert in the properties of New Zealand timber and it is likely he made detailed studies of native woods to maximise the impact of his intricate designs.
His reputation as a cabinetmaker of international distinction was cemented when, in 1862, Sueffert received a lot of publicity for his work when he made a writing cabinet using New Zealand woods, 'consisting of 30,000 pieces, valued at 300 guineas, which was purchased and presented by the citizens of Auckland to her Majesty the Queen Victoria
Victoria of the United Kingdom
Victoria was the monarch of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until her death. From 1 May 1876, she used the additional title of Empress of India....
. The cabinet is still in the Royal Collection at Buckingham Palace. He also produced a series of up to nine writing cabinets also known as Louis XV escritoire or bonheur du jour cabinets. Each of the cabinets are known by the name of the recipient and include the 'Watt cabinet' constructed for Archibald Anderson Watt, the 'Hooker cabinet' constructed for Sir Joseph Hooker
Joseph Dalton Hooker
Sir Joseph Dalton Hooker OM, GCSI, CB, MD, FRS was one of the greatest British botanists and explorers of the 19th century. Hooker was a founder of geographical botany, and Charles Darwin's closest friend...
, and the 'Grey cabinet' constructed for Governor George Grey
George Grey
George Grey may refer to:*Sir George Grey, 2nd Baronet , British politician*George Grey, 2nd Earl of Kent *Sir George Grey , Governor of Cape Colony, South Australia and New Zealand...
. In addition to cabinets he also made tables, boxes of various sizes and covers for books of pressed ferns, as well as panels for the Governor Grey's library at Manion House, Grey's residence on Kawau Island. All Seuffert's work was intricately inlaid and most included designs with New Zealand imagery including very accurately depicted native flora and fauna.
In 1869 Queen Victoria's second son Prince Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh, visited New Zealand in his naval role as the Captain of the HMS Galetea. Seuffert built a bed and a chest of drawers
Chest of drawers
A chest of drawers, also called a dresser or a bureau, is a piece of furniture that has multiple parallel, horizontal drawers stacked one above another...
for the Duke's use during his 1869 stay and received a Royal Appointment. Seuffert used this as an opportunity to change the design of his work labels as well as the spelling of his surname from Seufert to Seuffert.
Seuffert entered his works in the international exhibitions of 1862, 1873, 1879, and 1880–81, the New Zealand Exhibition in Dunedin 1865 and the Colonial and Indian Exhibition
Colonial and Indian Exhibition
The Colonial and Indian Exhibition of 1886 was a very substantial exhibition held in South Kensington in London, and intended "to stimulate commerce and strengthen the bonds of union now existing in every portion of her Majesty's Empire"...
in 1886 and won numerous prizes.
He became a naturalised New Zealander in 1861. His wife, Anna Seuffert, also had a business - a fancy goods shop - which may have supported the family, while Seuffert worked on his commissions. Seuffert passed on his skills to his son, William, who took over the business when his father died on 6 August 1887.