The old days A grave story of coffins
A grave story of coffins
clared the use of reusable coffins in order to save wood. Then the bottom of the coffin had a trap door that would drop the body in the hole and could be retrieved for further use.
Coffins are traditionally made with six sides plus the top lid and bottom, tapered around the shoulders, or rectangular with four sides (in which case it is called a casket). Another form of foursided coffin is trapezoidal (in the form of a trapezium.
In Suva, the first professional coffin maker was T.L De Francouer, the sole proprietor of Suva Funeral Parlour that was located at the corner of Pratt and Murray streets, directly opposite the Sacred Heart Cathedral.
Francouer's establishment was a step up from Hirst's coffin shop along Beach St in Levuka.
He imported "the highest class of goods" for his caskets and coffins from "the best manufacturers" in New Zealand, France, Canada, America and England.
"The making and trimming of my caskets down to my commonest coffins are of the best materials in Fijian and imported timbers, and of the best workmanship and are made in the most up-to-date designs and size," said a 1910 advertisement by Francouer in The Fiji Times.
While Hirst made coffins depending on order, Francouer massproduced his products and at one time had "over fifty caskets and coffins, of all classes and sizes" ready to be delivered at a moment's notice.
He went to great lengths to deliver professional services and paid attention to "all the different points of funeral undertaking" and the study of the "embalming of the body from old Egyptian days to modern times".
At the time, Suva's most expensive caskets were made from polished native timbers such as "polished damanu" and polished
yaka". These were sold for around seven pounds each. The cheapest coffins cost 10 pence while the dearest children's coffins fetched three pounds.
Francouer provided pall-bearers, hearse and carriage services, wreaths and marble monuments.
A beautiful French wreathe was given for free with each purchase of a casket between six to seven pounds. He sometimes gave away free coffins to the poor.
"Anyone, white or coloured, losing one of their family by death and are too poor to pay for a coffin and are able to satisfy me that they are respectable and worthy people, I will give them a coffin free to bury their dead," Francouer said.
"It is not so much the monetary recompense that I desire as to be able to do good to all my fellow human beings who are respectable and in need of assistance."
Francouer also operated 24 hours a day and those who needed to place an order at night were requested to call at his Murray St office entrance (behind the Central Police Station-Togogo).
When he exited the funeral undertaking business, it is understood Patton & Storck Limited, which opened in the 1920s took over Suva Funeral Parlour. Patton & Stoc, was started by two families and remains open today under new management.
"Coffin making is a safe business because you will never run out of clients," says Sanjay Dutt of Dominion Funeral Director along Brown St Suva.
While coffins and caskets of the past were basic in design, today they come in a variety of designs, an impact of changing tastes.
"We have a variety of coffins and a range of prices to choose from. We have ready-made ones and can come up with custommade designs too,” Dutt said.
As a community social responsibility, Dominion Funeral Director provides coffins for free to any deceased member of Golden Age Home in Samabula.
Francouer's funeral parlour is long gone and today its onceupon-a-time office space has made way for new enterprises that make up the new business landscape of 21st century Suva.
For coffin making ventures that are around today, death is a friend and a natural phenomenon that makes sure they will always remain in business.
And regardless of the design of a coffin or casket, its size and price, whether the deceased is cremated or buried and what the grave will look like, it is through the coffin maker's hands that a loved one's life is honoured.
Coffin making gives each and every one of us the opportunity to say goodbye and pay tribute to a life well lived – in dignity and in style.