A superb Anton Seuffert card table of New Zealand native timber with original label underneath and original Seuffert/Teutenberg base. Card tables were a Seuffert speciality and his 1875 raffle advertisement in the Auckland Herald valued card tables of this design at 10 pounds. Fifteen years later inflation raised the price to 11 pounds, the tables were too small for card games, so were properly named by Seuffert for their use as business or postal card depositories. In more recent times they have also been referred to as side, occasional, wine or specimen tables - the latter because of the profusion of specimen timbers used in the parquetry. Parquetry and marquetry inlaid furniture was extremely popular during the Victorian era and many immigrant cabinetmakers continued their craft after settling in New Zealand. Anton Seuffert is now recognised as the greatest of these cabinetmakers. His ability to combine significant artistic flair with considerable manual dexterity resulted in works of Art of unique visual balance and technical accuracy, the professional consistency he brought to this craft can be observed from the smallest, least significant piece, right through to the largest most complex escritoire. Height 73 cm. Diameter 61 cm.
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- Marquetry - In marquetry inlay, contrasting woods, and other materials such as ivory, shell and metal are inlaid either as panels or in a single continuous sheet over the surface of the piece. The design may be straightforward, such as a shell pattern or a basket of flowers, or it may be infinitely complex, with swirling tendrils of leaves, flowers and foliage, such as one finds, for example, in the "seaweed" patterns on longcase clocks of the William and Mary and Queen Anne periods.
- Victorian Period - The Victorian period of furniture and decorative arts design covers the reign of Queen Victoria from 1837 to 1901. There was not one dominant style of furniture in the Victorian period. Designers used and modified many historical styles such as Gothic, Tudor, Elizabethan, English Rococo, Neoclassical and others, although use of some styles, such as English Rococo and Gothic tended to dominate the furniture manufacture of the period.
The Victorian period was preceded by the Regency and William IV periods, and followed by the Edwardian period, named for Edward VII (1841 ? 1910) who was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions and Emperor of India for the brief period from 1901 until his death in 1910.
- Parquetry - Parquetry is inlay laid in geometric patterns, the contrast being achieved by the opposing angles of the grain and veneers. The herringbone pattern is the most commonly used in flooring, but this is almost never seen in furniture - the patterns used are more complex and unlike flooring, can include several different varieties of timber.
- Inlay - Decorative patterns inserted into the main body of a piece of furniture, generally in wood of contrasting colour and grain, though brass, ivory, ebony, shell and sometimes horn have been used. Inlay may consist of a panel of well figured timber inset into a cabinet door front, geometric patterns, or complex and stylized designs of flowers, swags of foliage, fruits and other motifs. As a general rule, in pieces where the carcase is constructed in the solid, the inlay is relatively simple such as stringing, cross banding and herringbone banding. Where more elaborate and decorative work was required veneer was used. Inlay has been fashionable from at least the latter half of the 17th century, when a variety of elaborate forms were developed
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