The Guide To Identifying, Caring For And Buying Quality Cape Dutch Furniture by Emmeke van der Meulen
Very Scarce
Dedicated and signed by the Author, the well-known furniture conservator Emmeke van der Meulen on the first page.
The Guide To Identifying, Caring For And Buying Quality Cape Dutch Furniture by Emmeke van der Meulen.
Softcover, ISBN 978 1 990960 71 0
Publisher: Reach Publishers, 2020 First edition.
Condition: Good - Very good. This book is in very good condition. The wraps have some very slight/limited signs of wear and a slight curl to the corners and the bookblock is slightly dusty. The book’s pages are clean, intact and the corners and spine remains undamaged. This book has been well maintained and looked after thus far.
The well-known furniture conservator, Emmeke van der Meulen has produced a book which comes highly recommended for museums.
Emmeke van der Meulen is one of the world's leading specialists and restorers of Cape Dutch furniture. She first became intrigued by wood and furniture as a result of conversations with her late father de ella, who was an academic scientist in botany. Her family of five of hers survived particularly hard times during WW2 in Indonesia, where she was born. Emmeke became a student of L'Atelier, an internationally recognized school in Belgium, where she earned her qualifications in Antique Furniture Restoration, Gilding and Polychrome. She went on to study in Hong Kong for several years to learn more about marquetry and gilding. Emmeke has launched various international furniture restoration studios, among others in Philadelphia, Brussels and Cape Town. Of all the various time furniture period styles, it was Cape Dutch furniture, though, that captured her heart and mind. Emmeke opened L'Atelier Studio Antiques, a studio in Somerset West, and trained a team of staff to assist her doing their painstaking, loving work of restoration, repair, marquetry and veneer of Cape Dutch items, made of yellowwood, stinkwood, teak and padauks. She consequently taught at many universities and organizations. From her studio, Emmeke educates and assists people to build their knowledge about the value and care of this style of furniture. She encourages people to buy and restore furniture items that are still in circulation, and in this book, she gives valuable guidelines and advice on where to find pieces, how to determine the value, and how to start the vital work of restoration and repairs. Professional products for the maintenance and care of this style of furniture can be bought or ordered from Emmeke's studio (www.studioantiques.co.za). It is Emmeke's hope that this concise guide – years in the making – will assist many lucky owners in possession of Cape Dutch furniture to care for it, and to know what to look for when investing in these items. In this book, she explains which kind of woods were mostly used to construct specific items of Cape Dutch furniture, as well as the most important dangers, such as woodworm, fungi and bad caring habits.
