Work Box

This work box in rosewood, totara and rimu was made by Henry Mason in the 1840s, and has a printed label on the base - a rare discovery for colonial furniture of this age.

Henry Mason arrived in New Zealand on the Thomas Sparks in 1843, aged about 37, and established a cabinet-making workshop on Wellington Terrace. In the mid-1840s Mason went into partnership with carpenter James Chapple, and Chapple’s name has been added by hand to the makers’ label on this box. It reads ‘MASON & Chapple/CABINET MAKER AND CARVER/WELLINGTON TERRACE/WELLINGTON NEW ZEALAND.’ Mason worked in Wellington until at least 1847, but some time before 1851 moved to Auckland and set up a new workshop near St. John’s College. He worked as a cabinetmaker in Auckland until at least 1859, and he seems to have finished his working years as a teacher.

Relatively little is known of Mason's life, but at least three examples of his work have survived as well as his signed copy of George Smith’s Cabinet-Maker and Upholsterer’s Guide (1826). Mason brought the book to New Zealand and used it to create bespoke pieces influenced by metropolitan fashions. Although this piece does not seem to be based on any specific pattern, it is in the neo-Grecian style which was particularly popular during the Regency era, and of which George Smith was one of the key creative figures. It is also similar in style to the tea poys (tea caddies on stands) illustrated in Thomas King’s The Modern Style of Cabinet Work Exemplified (1829, revised c1839), which feature rounded fronts ‘designed to display the beauty of fine veneer.’ King, too, was a key proponent of neo-classical design, and the work box is thus a fantastic example of a colonial piece crafted in a fashionable English style.

References:

• Cottrell, William. 2006. Furniture of the New Zealand Colonial Era, An Illustrated History 1830 - 1900. Auckland: Reed.
• Cottrell, William. 2017. Personal communication with curator.
• King, Thomas. [1839?] The Modern Style of Cabinet Work Exemplified, In New Designs, Practically Arranged, On 72 Plates, Containing 227 Designs, (Including Fragmental Parts.) 2nd Edition. London.  
• Miller, Judith ed. 1998. Miller’s Antiques Encyclopedia. London: Miller’s.