A WORTHY COLONIAL MANUFACTURE.

Evening Star, Issue 7248, 27 June 1887, Page 2

A WORTHY COLONIAL MANUFACTURE.

The oatket which is to contain the address from the Mayor and Counoil of ibe City of Dunedin' to Her Majesty the Queen is now on exhibition at Messrs Scciullar > and Chisholm's warehouse, where it will remain for a day or.two before feeing fitted up and despatched Home. It isa unique epeoia en of New Zealand oibinet-work, proving that art manufacture can be viry successfully accomplished here as at Home, The production has been entirely in colonial band', for i; was designed specially to tbo order of the Counoil, and has been constructed, carved, and poliohed entirely oh Meisis Scoul.ar and Cbisbolm's premises. It is made from over 200 pieces of native timber, and the object sought has been not so much to exhibit a specimen <f skill in inlaying', as to combine, in the mort effective way on such a small eoale, the wealth and vatiety of timber grown In. this, Colony, 80 aa to bring into prominence the harmonious coloring and intricate figuring of our beautiful native woods. Keepi >g this purpose in, view, the lines of the casket lyii'e bicn made almost clastio in severity, and the designer has trusted more to the effect to be produocd by bands of pslisbed mouldings and surfaots rather tha'i to intiicate arrangemems of inlay biff and marqueterie work. This latter branch ot the cabinetWftKcr'ti art has not, however, been neglected, for upon the flat surface which su mounts the lid of the casket there has been introduced a piece of inlaid work consisting of a star flanked on either side by a narrow panel with radiating lines from the centre. This is the only departure made from the original intention ; but the handsome appearance of this small inlaid surface, forming, as it does, a finishing cap to the totara and honeysuckle ' mouldings below, amply justifies this. The casket is about fourteen inohes in length, eleven inohes in width, and six inches in depth; out a great amount of skill has been displayed in its construction, whilst the design, although fettered in conception by the fittings wbioh had to be tnolosed, is highly artistic. There are about twenty difforent kinds of native timber used in its construction, every variety suitable for oabinet work being introduced. Amongst them are the following: puriri, goai, New Zeal nd oedar, rlmu (red pine), ribbonwjood, tota a, bokaki, red maple, kauri, tawhai (red, birob), rewl (honeysuckle), kahikatea (white pine), mokai, New Zealand ebony, mikimiki, white maple, and .manuka. The totara which has been introiuaed into the lid is a beautiful specimen, and its rioh appearance proves unmiitakeably that Now Zealand possesses in her native forests timber not one wblt Inferior to the most oostly ml rare woods imported from othor parts of the world into the, Oil Country. Totara, which has a grain resembling that of thuya .and amboyna, has also been used to form .the small fielded panels surrounding the body of, ,the casket. The shaped and carved base is formed of puriri, a wood much used in the Railway Department ot the Colony, and has very much the appearance of the Italian walnut so well known at Home. The colors of the various timbers are moßt harmoniously blended, the warm tints of the totara showing to advantage beside the cooler and more subtle shades' of the kauri and honeysuckle. The curving round the 114 and *lpng the base has been designed in the grotesque Maori style, the motif beipg talfen from the Native work, on the canoes and weapons of warfare. The hu »U pilasters, eight in number, which support the lid have been" copied and modified from the bead-poats on the old Maori wham. These pilasters are marvels of workmanship, the details being wonderfully well worked out. A larger amount of carving of a much more ambitious character might

easily have been Introduced, but Messrs Scoullar and Chisholm wished every detail, whether cf workmanship or material, to be " racy of the soil "—to remind the people at Home that the casket came from their f urthekt-off possession. The oarvin? ha, therefore been c refully restricted to those portiots of the casket where the figure of the wood was likely to be overlook e i. and any unnecessary or meretricicm work his heen avoided. It is difficult to speak in terms of sufficient praise of the workmanlike way in which the small mouldings which run round the lid and base cf the cisket are finished. The casket has been made a work of art, worthy alike the city which presents it aid the Royal recipient. We congratulate the manufacturers upon the successful result they have attained, and h-.pe that this Jubilee casket fram the commercial capital oi New Zealand will attract the attention ot the people at Home, which its manifold beauties entitle it to.