Olveston (house)
Encyclopedia
Dunedin
Dunedin is the second-largest city in the South Island of New Zealand, and the principal city of the Otago Region. It is considered to be one of the four main urban centres of New Zealand for historic, cultural, and geographic reasons. Dunedin was the largest city by territorial land area until...
, New Zealand
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
. It was built between 1904 and 1907 for a wealthy merchant David Theomin, (1852-1933) . He had originally emigrated to New Zealand from the village of Olveston
Olveston
Olveston is a small village and larger parish in South Gloucestershire, England. The parish comprises the villages of Olveston and Tockington, and the hamlets of Old Down, Ingst and Awkley. Alveston became a separate parish in 1846...
, South Gloucestershire
South Gloucestershire
South Gloucestershire is a unitary district in the ceremonial county of Gloucestershire, in South West England.-History:The district was created in 1996, when the county of Avon was abolished, by the merger of former area of the districts of Kingswood and Northavon...
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
. Theomin married Marie Michaelis of Melbourne
Melbourne
Melbourne is the capital and most populous city in the state of Victoria, and the second most populous city in Australia. The Melbourne City Centre is the hub of the greater metropolitan area and the Census statistical division—of which "Melbourne" is the common name. As of June 2009, the greater...
(1855-1926) and was thus related to the extended Hallenstein, Fels, de Beer and Brasch families of Dunedin, patrons of the arts and learning. Charles Brasch
Charles Brasch
Charles Orwell Brasch was a New Zealand poet, literary editor and arts patron. He was the founding editor of the literary journal Landfall....
, a New Zealand poet and editor, said of his kinsman, 'he was a jolly bouncy little man who liked a bit of swank perhaps but was kindly and quite without side'. Theomin's fortune came substantially from importing pianos which he distributed through a New Zealand-wide chain of shops, called The Dresden, and later The Bristol Piano Company. He and his daughter Dorothy were patrons especially of music and the visual arts.
Built in the Jacobean
Jacobean architecture
The Jacobean style is the second phase of Renaissance architecture in England, following the Elizabethan style. It is named after King James I of England, with whose reign it is associated.-Characteristics:...
style to plans prepared by the London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
architect Sir Ernest George
Ernest George
Sir Ernest George RA was an English architect, landscape and architectural watercolour painter, and etcher.-Life and work:...
, (1839-1922) the house was fitted with all the latest conveniences: central heating, an internal telephone system, a service lift, a food mixer, and an electric toaster, for example. It has 35 rooms, with a total floor area of 1276 m². Theomin had acquired land on the site in 1881 when there was an existing villa. By 1901 he had bought an adjacent property and in 1904 acquired another. The existing buildings were then removed. The family was in London in 1903 and working drawings from Ernest George & Yeates are dated October 1903.
The building is brick rendered in Moeraki
Moeraki
Moeraki is a small fishing village on the east coast of the South Island of New Zealand. It was once the location of a whaling station. In the 1870s, local interests believed it could become the main port for the north Otago area and a railway line, the Moeraki Branch, was built to the settlement...
gravel, with Oamaru
Oamaru
Oamaru , the largest town in North Otago, in the South Island of New Zealand, is the main town in the Waitaki District. It is 80 kilometres south of Timaru and 120 kilometres north of Dunedin, on the Pacific coast, and State Highway 1 and the railway Main South Line connects it to both...
stone facings and is roofed with Marseilles tiles. The main entrance and some principal rooms face east. A galleried hall rises through the ground and upper floors and served as a ball room. An elevated internal balcony was an eyrie from which to watch the dancing below. The youthful Miss Theomin's personal suite with its own sitting room is delicate and charming. The outlook is principally to the garden and the Town Belt bush providing attractive views and belying the proximity of the central city. The quality of the materials and the standard of the craftsmanship are high. The supervising architects were the Dunedin firm of Mason & Wales and the builder was Robert Meikle. Olveston is not an Arts and Crafts house though something of that aesthetic is apparent. While over-furnished by later standards a lot of the contents are interesting and some are outstanding. The British architectural historian Sir Nikolaus Pevsner
Nikolaus Pevsner
Sir Nikolaus Bernhard Leon Pevsner, CBE, FBA was a German-born British scholar of history of art and, especially, of history of architecture...
visited Olveston in August 1958 and described it as "an extremely interesting and very grand house". He also noted that Ernest George was one of five or six pre-eminent English architects at the time of its commission.
The Theomins collected art, ceramics and furniture. They acquired significant Japanese material and works by W.M. Hodgkins, Frances Hodgkins
Frances Hodgkins
Frances Mary Hodgkins was a painter chiefly of landscape and still life, and for a short period was a designer of textiles. She was born in New Zealand, but spent most of her working life in Britain...
, Alfred Henry O'Keeffe
Alfred Henry O'Keeffe
Alfred Henry O'Keeffe , was a notable New Zealand artist and art teacher, who spent the majority of his life in Dunedin. During the first quarter of the twentieth century, he was one of the few New Zealand artists to engage with new ideas while staying in New Zealand. At this time most adventurous...
and Frank Brangwyn
Frank Brangwyn
Sir Frank William Brangwyn RA RWS RBA was an Anglo-Welsh artist, painter, water colourist, virtuoso engraver and illustrator, and progressive designer.- Biography :...
among others.
The house and its contents were bequeathed to the city in 1966 by David Theomin's daughter Dorothy Theomin (1888-1966). It was opened to the public the following year, and has between 30,000 and 40,000 visitors annually. Its architectural distinction, its collections and the record it represents of a sumptuous life in Edwardian New Zealand lend it a special interest.
A protected tree on the grounds fell without warning on 8 February 2009, apparently due to root failure, crushing the car of a senior guide parked outside.