High price expected for 140-year-old desk

The Burton Cabinet. Photo / Paul Estcourt

An ornate cabinet which survived 19th-century land wars and a house fire is expected to become the most expensive piece of furniture ever sold at auction in New Zealand.

Only a handful of cabinets were made by revered craftsman Anton Seuffert, each named after the person who commissioned it.

Nearly all have disappeared abroad, and the auction of the 140-year-old "Burton cabinet", first owned by Captain Henry Burton, is a unique event.

Auction house Dunbar Sloane expects the desk to fetch between $250,000 and $300,000 - a similar price to a large Charles Goldie painting.

Auctioneer Dunbar Sloane jnr said pieces by Seuffert fetched 10 times the price of the nearest furniture-maker.

"It's the best piece of furniture you could buy that was ever made in this country. If someone came back to me in 10 years' time I would expect them to make a good deal of money on it.

"There are people out there who look at pieces of furniture as an alternative to investing in art. And this is a unique piece, not like a Colin McCahon or Ralph Hotere where there's lots about. This is rare, and the top end."

A newspaper article written at the time of the Burton cabinet's restoration in the 1980s described it as the most elegant piece of furniture ever seen in Auckland, with incomparable detail and an "exquisite finish".

At a time when New Zealand was still growing out of a frontier culture, Austrian-born Seuffert made fine furniture for the houses of wealthy families.

His Burton cabinet is made from totara, puriri, kahikatea, rewarewa, rimu, rata, kohuhutu and other native timbers. It combines painstakingly detailed European craftsmanship with New Zealand iconography - ferns, Maori tattoos and a giganticmoa.

Mr Sloane said the fact that its full history and lineage of owners were known was also rare, and added to its value.

Captain Henry Burton led the 40th Regiment of Foot in New Zealand between 1860 and 1866, and was involved in land wars in Taranaki and Waikato. He was later in charge of the party of soldiers who erected the first telegraph line in New Zealand.

His cabinet was shipped to England in 1870 before being passed through family and family friends.

A Christchurch buyer bought it at Christie's in London in 1987, bringing it back to our shores.

However, it was almost lost in a fire at the house where it was being stored - the owner dragged it out the door as the flames closed in.

For the past four years, it has been on loan to the Canterbury Museum from its second New Zealand owner.

Mr Sloane said museums were under tight budget constraints and probably could not afford to buy the desk as a permanent piece.

The Burton cabinet will be auctioned on April 19.