NEW ZEALAND SPECIMEN WOOD PARQUETRY GLOVE BOX, ATTRIBUTED TO ANTON SEUFFERT
19TH CENTURY
Auction: Day Two | Thurs 4th Sept at 10am | Lots 403 to 727
Description
the hinged domed lid inlaid with various indigenous wood veneers, with a bone lined keyhole, opening to a void interior
Dimensions
28cm wide, 9cm high, 13cm deep
Footnote
Anton Seuffert was born in Bohemia in 1815 and later joined his father in the Vienna firm of cabinetmakers Carl Leistler. Father and son organised the firm's stand at the Great Exhibition in London in 1851, their most notable piece of furniture being the spectacular Gothic revival cabinet presented by Emperor Franz Joseph I to Queen Victoria, now in the Victoria and Albert Museum. Anton Seuffert emigrated to Auckland in 1859 and quickly established premises under his own name, specialising in high quality marquetry productions. He exhibited a pictorial marquetry secretaire consisting of 30,000 pieces of New Zealand timbers at the South Kensington International Exhibition of 1862. The secretaire was later acquired by the citizens of Auckland for 300 guineas and presented as a gift to Queen Victoria. It is still in the Royal Collection. Seuffert received further patronage from the Duke of Edinburgh in 1869. He changed his name from Seufert to Seuffert in 1869.
For examples similar to the present lot, see B. Peet, The Seuffert Legacy, New Zealand Colonial Master Craftsmen, The craft of Anton Seuffert & his sons William, Albert & Carl, Auckland, 2008, pp.122-39