Period Furniture For Akaroa House Sought

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30395, 20 March 1964, Page 12

Period Furniture For Akaroa House Sought

Application will bo made by the Langlois-Eteveneaux House Museum Board for a grant of £465 from the National Historic Places Trust to provide period furniture for the restored French house at Akaroa. At a recent meeting of the board, a letter from the French ambassador (Mr L. Felix) listed various items of furniture of the French Provincial style of the 1840 s held by the French Government. The list included chairs, a wort table, a piano, a cradle and other items, of a total value of £1390. Mr Felix asked the board to indicate pieces it required, and whether it sought assistance. The prices were plus freight from France. The chairman (Mr G. P. A. de Latour) pointed out that the board had sought a gift of period furniture from the French Government, but Mr J. A. Hendry said it might be difficult to obtain pieces of furniture in the correct style. He and Mias Rose Reynolds, i honorary custodian of colonial '«*hibits at the Canterbury Museum, were authorised to draw up a list of requirements, Mr Hendry saying that armchairs and a feouch, the

' cradle and a work table would : be sufficient i The board agreed to make ■ an appeal to residents of t Banks Peninsula and else- : where for gifts of suitable ' furniture and objects to go in the house, and also for ■ display in the adjoining i museum. Dr. R. Duff, director of the ' Canterbury Museum, said that • showcases and display flxI turn for the Akaroa museum would be prepared by the i Canterbury Museum staff at i a cost of about £490. I Mr R. Riccalton, a museum specialist, showed a I scale model of the Akaroa , museum and his proposal for • the layout of the display fix* i tures was approved. It provides for sections showing . part of a colonial kitchen, ; with domestic utensils; milttary and women’s costumes of the period, and firearms; Maori material selected from the Vangioni collection held by the Canterbury Museum; old agricultural material; whaling and nautical material; and a selection of early maps of the peninsula. It was said that it would be spring or early summer before the house and museum would be open to tls public.