Patterns: Printed Image & a Century of Colonial Furniture

The Friends of the Turnbull Library supports the work of the Alexander Turnbull Library, and promotes public interest in the Library’s collections.

Art history of material culture.

Art Historian Dr William Cottrell specialised in colonial furniture. He says that new research now reveals a formerly unrecognised art history of material culture.

Dr Cottrell's presentation will examine the influence of printed patterns over one hundred years of colonial furniture design.

He will discuss the three aspects of pattern production that influenced colonial domestic furniture design:
- the designer
- the manufacturer’s trade catalogue, and
- the publisher’s subscription magazine.

A Friends of the Turnbull Library event.

About the speaker:
Dr William Cottrell is an art historian specialising in colonial furniture, and the award-winning author of 'Furniture of the New Zealand Colonial Era: an illustrated history 1830-1900' (Reed, 2006).