Hiding in plain sight
The Auckland Library Heritage Trust has completed long overdue restoration work on two tables in Tāmaki Pātaka Kōrero | Central City Library. The tables were presented to the Auckland Free Library which opened on 26 March 1887. Auckland was library mad in the 1880s with the gift of former Governor Sir George Grey’s extraordinary library in 1882 and the promise of a building to house the collection. To mark the historic library opening in 1887 the New Zealand Insurance Company presented: “... two chess tables, with full sets, and two draughts boards and men." ( CITY COUNCIL., New Zealand Herald , Volume XXIV, Issue 7947, 13 May 1887 ). The chessmen are long gone but one chess table survives after 131 years, along with one of the draughts boards now inset into a twentieth century table. The Auckland Library Heritage Trust recognised the significance of the furniture in the history of Auckland Libraries. Chair Colin Davis notes that the original chess table is significant as p