BW van Dyk - 19th Century furniture maker, Robertson

Burgert Wynand van Dyk was born in Bredasdorp in the Overberg region of the Western Cape on 9 July 1842. He died in 1930 in Winburg, the oldest proclaimed town in what is now, Freestate Province.*

Burgert W. van Dyk and his first wife Elizabeth S. Wessels
Source: 'Giliomee - ’n Pionierfamilie van die Overberg', Dirkie Neethling

His workshop was in Barry Street, Robertson in the Western Cape Province (then until 1910, The Cape Colony). He focused on the making of chairs in the Regency style.  His earlier chairs were proportionally well designed. A defining feature of his dining chairs, are the small fine spindles fitted between the two centre back rungs.

Detail of the spindle

All his chairs were made with selected Stinkwood that was consistently darker of colour. Stinkwood was the preferred fine local wood for quality furniture in the 19^th Century Cape. The components of his chairs were undoubtedly all turned in his workshop and not bought-in from suppliers, as was generally the practice in the Cape Regency furniture-making era. Not every furniture-maker in the countryside owned a lathe, or had the skills to turn their own wood components.

Stamp on the back of his chairs

His later chairs, like the designs of other chair-makers, were stockier. He died in 1930 and one can assume that he still produced Regency-style chairs into the Edwardian era. He was one of the few (like van Eeden and Preiss from Robertson) that stamped his name on his chairs as maker. His later pieces are thought not to have been stamped. It is not known whether he made other furniture such as tables, ‘jonkmanskaste’, kists and so on. Although it is not known whether he made tables, as no stamped BW van Dyk table has been identified, it is quite possible that he did do so for his chairs.

            Furniture maker W R van Eeden with apprentices each holding a woodworking tool.                           Photo supplied by Dirkie Neethling

Today, it is rare to find a set of 6 or more of his matching dining chairs. A set of 6 matching dining side chairs with 2 carvers that all carry his signature as maker, is even rarer.

The Towerwater set of 8 BW van Dyk dining chairs is a fine example of his earlier, proportionally well designed, Cape Regency chairs. They display his signature three hand-turned spindles in the back rungs of each of the side chairs with four in the up-scaled carvers.

Set of 8 stamped B W van Dyk chairs, 6 side chairs and 2 carvers

The Towerwater set of 8 chairs might quite possibly be the only complete set of B W van Dyk dining chairs in the Robertson valley. After many travels, they have finally found their way ‘home’.

Source: 'Giliomee - ’n Pionierfamilie van die Overberg' by Dirkie Neethling as well as correspondence with Dirkie Neethling.

*Update: 6 July 2023

The reason why I believe in recording and publishing information, is to share knowledge and encourage debate. I am pleased to report an email conversation with Wilhelm van Dyk which brought into question why an earlier finding had been that B W van Dyk had died in the town of Winburg in the Orange Free State. This assertion seemed particularly curious in the light of the fact that B W van Dyk had a successful furniture making business in Robertson.

After conducting further research, Wilhelm van Dyk discovered that the BW van Dyk that died in Winburg was actually Burgert W van Dyk and not the carpenter Burger W van Dyk of Robertson. The carpenter, B W van Dyk was born on the 24^th of May 1867 in Roberson and died in Robertson on the 24^th of February 1938, at the age of 70. This just proves how important the recording, publishing, and sharing of information is. Source: https://vandykregister.com/getperson.php?personID=I5951&tree=vandyk

Click on the link to read the related posts:

The anatomy of a BW van Dyk dining chair

The anatomy of a BW van Dyk dining carver

Finding Cape Country chairs in Pretoria

The BW van Dyk chairs that found us