The Gift I Was Given

by Jamie Allpress

During the winter school holidays of 1979 I landed a job at the local antique shop, earning $1 an hour, so I could save up and buy a BMX bike.  I was eleven years old, and that was the start of my journey.  My boss, John Henry Walter Cockburn, was 53 years old at the time.  He was to become a great friend and mentor. 

In New Zealand everything was over-restored - stripped, sanded and repolished to a mirror shine.  I would spend over a week on one piece, whereas now I spend a day.  By the time I was 12, I was working 24 hours a week and from my first day I knew it was to be my future.  On my 15th birthday I left school to work full time and had already sold many pieces in the showroom.

Johnny was a patient teacher and a very talented tradesman; he could colour a piece of pine to look like burr walnut, his favourte of all timbers.  He never took shortcuts and everything had to be done to perfection.

In the early 80s I assisted him in teaching university extension courses on furniture restoration; people aged 18 to 80 would come to the workshop, bringing a small piece of furniture to the class, and over many lessons, would take it away finished and looking great. I got a lot of pleasure at such a young age from teaching adults how to restore a treasured piece.

Over the years at my shop in Melbourne I have given the occasional customer lessons on restoring a piece of theirs, and they have all left with a smile on their face.  Recently, an older gentleman called 'Alan', a retired police officer has been restoring his 19th Century Australian cedar chest of drawers with me on Saturdays.  He is a great student and is doing a fine job.

Johnny also taught me 'business sense' - how to buy and sell and how to treat people.  He had an amazing sense of humour.  A couple could walk into the shop and firstly he would start with a sarcastic comment, next he would have them in fits of laughter and then end up selling them a fine antique.

In the late 80s I came to Australia for a holiday and ended up staying in Melbourne. I did furniture restoration for a few antique dealers and in 1990 I opened my shop, with one piece of furniture - an ordinary, Victorian mahogany chest of drawers.

My interest in oak and country furniture steadily grew and within a few years the only stock I wanted to handle was early oak.  My old boss was only a phone call away for any advice I needed on running my business and no matter what the problem was I would always finish our conversation smilling.

In New Zealand the majority of our stock is Victorian furniture and, unlike early oak, is reasonably easy to source throughout Australia.  So several years ago Johnny asked me to export container loads of furniture to New Zealand, giving us a stronger bond.

Johnny always told me that he would never retire and that he would die with a polishing rubber in his hand. Last September I was preparing for the Sydney antique fair, where I exhibit twice a year, when I received a phone call telling me Johnny was in hospital I arranged for my brother and friend to set up my stand at the fair and I returned to New Zealand to be by his side.  Johnny said that he held on for me and we had a long talk.  He was still cracking jokes and insisted that I should be focusing on business and not his critical condition.  He passed away the next day, but before I left I went to the shop and saw his last job, a masterpiece of colouring and graining.  We sourced a burr walnut coffin and John Henry Walter Cockburn rested surrounded by his much-loved timber.  I went straight from the cemetery to the airport and arrived in Sydney one hour before the fair opened.

I recently received a new collection of 17th and 18th Century country furniture.  Once unloaded I stood back and was enthralled by each piece, such a gathering of beauty.  It seemed like I was taking in a magnificent landscape or I would imagine how Norman Lindsay felt on the completion of a canvas.  I can remember many years ago Johnny acting in the same way when he was unloading a container from Europe.  I consider myself extremely fortunate to have been given 'the gift', a profession as an antique dealer.  For this I will always be indebted to my dear friend and mentor Johnny Cockburn.