Flower trove ‘auctioneer’s dream’
Revered food writer’s collection of antiques and artefacts in Epsom has auction house dizzy with delight
She was New Zealand’s own Julia Child, opening the eyes of everyday Kiwi cooks to a culinary world beyond meat and two veg. But pioneering food writer Tui Flower was also an avid collector with a discerning eye for quality.
Over decades, Flower and her parents and grandparents filled their Mt Eden family villa with a dazzling array of antiques and artefacts.
Now the collection, worth hundreds of thousands of dollars, is going under the hammer in what has been described as a “once-in-alifetime auctioneer’s dream” that has sparked international interest.
Intricately carved walking sticks and canes, antique horn and tortoiseshell snuff boxes, exquisite Shibiyama vases, Satsuma china, cloisonne artworks, pre-European pounamu hei tiki, and Anton Seuffertcrafted furniture, and even Flower’s own Cornishware rolling pin are part of the treasure-trove.
“Collections like this are incredibly rare,” said Andrew Grigg of Cordy’s Auctioneers in Remuera.
The long-time food editor of
died last August, aged 91.
When Grigg was asked to view Flower’s estate, the antique and art auctioneer had no inkling he was about to experience “the best house call I had ever in 30-plus years”.
“Arriving at her home fronted by a formal ironwork fence and large gate enclosing an overgrown but obviously once-loved garden, the stately villa with classical garden pots flanking the entrance all suggested that this one could be good,” he said.
“Her house was filled to overflowing with treasures, steeped in history and of high quality. It was astonishing.”
Born in Matamata, Flower went to Epsom Girls Grammar before graduating from the University of Otago’s School of Home Science.
She furthered her education with cordon bleu courses in the United States and study at the Ecole Hoteliere de Paris in 1954-55.
Her exposure to food journalism in the US, where food writer and TV chef Child was adapting complex French cooking for ordinary households, helped inspire her to become food editor of the in 1965.
She held the post until her retirement in 1984 and is credited with helping New Zealanders try new recipes and to not be scared of using garlic and wine in their cooking.
In retirement, Flower lived at the Mt Eden property owned by her maternal grandparents, who with her parents were also serious collectors.
A 1939 pamphlet article about her grandfather William Mincher says: “From his infancy, he has yielded to his inborn desire to collect things.”
A sale highlight is a walking stick made from the jarrah timber of early British consular representative James Busby’s house, where the Treaty of Waitangi was signed in 1840.
Other impressive items include about 80 snuff boxes, sperm whale teeth, an “extraordinarily fine” Meijiperiod Satsuma china vase by Ryozan, a bronze statuette of nineteenth century American Henry B. Hyde, and “oddities” like a 1940s Crown Lynn china Mickey Mouse jug.
“The whole Cordy’s team have very much enjoyed the sorting, research, cataloguing and handling of these wonderful items,” Grigg said. “Collections like this are rare.” The collections will be auctioned in two parts, on June 19 and July 17.