New furniture in old style

Press, Volume CXIV, Issue 33694, 18 November 1974, Page 6

New furniture in old style

Most of his ancestors for three centuries made furniture for a living, but Peter Guytonbeck prefers to do it as a hobby. The reason, he says, is that if he were doing it full-time it would become a job and something he had to do rather than something he wanted to do.

His hobby, nevertheless, occupies him every evening from 6.30 to 10.30, eight hours on Saturday and five or six hours on Sunday. He has orders to the extent that demand exceeds production but still will not give up his job as an insurance surveyor. “If I were making furniture as a job I would loose interest in it and when that happens you might as well give

it up,” he said. “You put a lot of feeling into each piece you create, and if you are going hell for leather you can’t possibly have that feeling there.” Peter and his brother Hans Geytenbeek (that is the correct Dutch spelling of the name but Peter changed his by deed poll to the phonetic pronunciation) work at the hobby together. Hans began making furniture ten years ago in Dunedin, six years after emigrating to New Zealand from i the Netherlands. He was I joined by Peter, who came [to New Zealand at the time Hans was beginning his \ hobby. No training Peter had studied to be an architect but neither brother had any training in handcrafting furniture. What they did have was an ancestry steeped in the trade. Peter, for instance, learnt from his grandfather how to use hot glue for joining pieces of furniture, a very tricky business which has to be completed in 15 seconds. They began by making a few pieces of furniture for themselves, then for friends, and the hobby grew to the point where they were supplying galleries and one retail shop.

Their work is currently being exhibited at the Sev-

eral Arts Gallery until November 29.

It is mostly European-in-spired, with the designs based on period Dutch, Flemish, Spanish and Scandinavian furniture. They began by searching through museums and books for ideas and even got some hints from the old-style cabinet makers.

The brothers prefer to work with oak, a material which is becoming more difficult for them to obtain. They originally bought up Old oak cabinets and tables, stripped them down and made new pieces of furniture from them. These pieces are becoming rare and very expensive, Peter says. Eight or nine years ago they could purchase an old oak table for 75 cents. Today the same table would cost $35. The brothers do all their own turning, steam bending and hand finishing. A little machinery has to be used but this is minimal. Some of the furniture Peter and Hans are making today would be similar to that made by their ancestors somewhere down the line. Peter emphasises that the furniture is not meant to look like antiques but new furniture in the old style. He recently made a trip to Europe and says this period furniture is very popular there with people of all income brackets. “This style of furniture fits well into any decor because of its simplicity. When these designs were first made the craftsmen only had simple tools and consequently the styling was simple.” Peter feels people are beginning to reject the plastic type of furniture. “I think people are seeing the value of good, solid furniture. It has a warmth that the other does not.”