Nautical Kauri Mirror Back Sideboard

• Frieze - An architectural term denoting the flat, shaped or convex horizontal surface of furniture, between the architrave and the cornice, usually found on a cabinet or bookcase, or on desks and tables where it may include drawers, the area between the top and the legs. In ceramics, the term refers to the banding, of usually a repeating pattern, on the rims of plates and vases.
• Kauri - An evergreen conifer tree associated with New Zealand, but also grown in northern Australia, and islands around the Pacific rim including Borneo, Vanuatu and New Guinea. The timber is generally golden in colour, and straight grained without much knotting.
  
  A by-product of the kauri tree was the kauri gum, the fossilised resin extracted from the tree. The gum was obtained through digging, fossicking in treetops, or more drastically, by bleeding live trees. Kauri gum was used in the manufacture of varnishes and other resin-based products, and also crafted into jewellery, keepsakes, and small decorative items.
  
  Kauri forests were prolific in the north of the North Island of New Zealand. European settlers in the 1700 and 1800s realised that the timber from these tall trees with broad trunks would be ideal for ship building and construction and a thriving industry was established harvesting the kauri tree. The forests were substantially reduced, and now the remaining Kauri trees that grow in New Zealand are protected, and there are reserves in various areas of the North Island.
  
  The remaining stands of kauri in New Zealand are under threat from "kauri disease", a microscopic organism that causes dieback in the trees, with vast tracts either dead or dying.
• Caryatid - A Greek term that in architecture applies to a carved or cast female figures that acts as a column or pillar, supporting an entablature on her head.
  
  In decorative arts , in furniture of the Renaissance and Classical Revival periods. Male figures are known as Atlantes.
  
  Carved figures are rare on Australian furniture until the later 19th century, Australian craftsmen generally preferring to adopt the designs of the pattern books to rather more simple forms, such as scrolls or columns.

This item has been included into following indexes:

• furniture, New Zealand - other 69
• sideboards
  • mirror back 137
  • Victorian 404