Name

Anton Seuffert

Culture

Aotearoa New Zealander

Gender

Male

Birth date

1815

Birth place

Bohemia View on map Close map

Death date

1887

Death Place

Aotearoa New Zealand View on map Close map

Movements

Aotearoa New Zealand from 1857

Occupations

Decorative / design artist | Designer (furniture)

Summary

Worked: Austria, England, Aotearoa New Zealand

NGA IRN

12242

Context

Aotearoa New Zealand | Australia

Biography

Anton Seuffert was born in Bohemia in 1815. He travelled to London to help supervise the exhibit of the Viennese firm of Karl Leistler & Sons at the Great Exhibition of 1851. Seuffert settled in London and married there in 1856 and is believed to have emigrated to New Zealand in the following year. 

By the mid-1860s Seuffert was advertising his business as a cabinetmaker in Auckland. The demand for his work must have been small and his output low, and most of his furniture appears to have been made expressly for presentation. Secretaires are known to have been presented to Queen Victoria; Sir Joseph Hooker, botanist and explorer; David Limond Murdoch, banker; George Augustus Selwyn, the first Bishop of New Zealand; and Lord Wakefield, whose family were pioneers in New Zealand. It is not yet known if the Australian National Gallery's secretaire is one of these.

Seuffert exhibited examples of his work at various international exhibitions, including the Sydney International Exhibition of 1879. There he was one of the few cabinetmakers to be awarded a First Degree of Merit and he was 'specially commended for taste and workmanship'.
He died in Auckland in August 1887.

Last Updated

04 Jul 2012