New Zealanders at Home
A Cultural History of Domestic Interiors, 1814-1914

Anna K. C. Petersen

A visual history of New Zealand domestic interiors, as seen through contemporary photographs, drawings and paintings.

The book is divided into four periods, taking the reader from the interior of a whare through the homes of missionaries and settlers to the turn-of-the-century villas of Auckland and twentieth-century bungalows of suburban Christchurch.

The pictures reveal much about how people lived in a great variety of homes: from one-roomed bush huts to mercantile mansions with every mod con. As an urban middle-class population developed, fashion became important, with rooms being decorated rather than simply functional. The Aesthetic Movement, Arts and Crafts, and Art Nouveau swept through. Chinese fans, draped mantels, elaborate vases, statues and clocks, cane furniture, and Japanese screens proliferated in succession. There is an introductory text to each period, then each picture has an extended caption.

Contents

Part 1: Signs of Higher Life, 1814-1840 (Plates 1-7)
Part 2: The Measure of Progress, 1840-1865 (Plates 8-20)
Part 3: The Value of Culture, 1865-1890 (Plates 21-42)
Part 4: The New Zealand Domestic Interior 1890-1914 (Plates 43-76)

About the Author

Anna Petersen is curator of photography at the Hocken Library, University of Otago, Dunedin.

Book Details

Social/design history
ISBN 1 877276 14 6, paperback, 297 x 210 mm, 172 pp, $49.95
Approx 100 photos, 9 colour
Release: November 2001