Sunday 26 May 2019

Kameel Stoepstorie: Van Riebeeck Chairs


The old chairs and the reason for the name
Van Riebeeck chairs are not a brand or style it merely forms part of modern history in South Africa.  
Well in short Anthoniszoon "Jan" van Riebeeck was a Dutch colonial administrator and founder of Cape Town. On 24 December 1651, accompanied by his wife Maria de la Quiellerie, Jan van Riebeeck set off from Texel in The Netherlands for the Cape of Good Hope. 
He was to oversee the setting up of a refreshment station to supply Dutch ships on their way to the East. Sailing on the Dromedaris with two other ships, the Rejiger and De Goede Hoop, Van Riebeeck was accompanied by 82 men and 8 women. 
Land was sighted on 5 April 1652 and the ships docked the next day. 
Their son Abraham was born on October 18, 1653, Castle of Good Hope, Cape Town

We found a beautiful piece of cloth that was printed with the Van Riebeeck story.
Hence the name of these 4 dining chairs as Van Riebeeck chairs. 

First we had to strip it down and give the wood a good treatment of oil.
This was a timeous process and we used mainly fine sandpaper and steel wool 

This was the first time we did this kind of upholstery
We must admit that we had to redo the first chair because the back was upside down.  


The first chair seat is done 
The first chair is finished 
Even the back section is showing in the right direction 

Done for the time 

Lots of blessing from South Africa 
Sandra and Hennie 

No comments:

Post a Comment