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Peter Alsop is a collector – and an avid one at that. But, despite the potential for riotous displays of those treasured objects, he and his wife Airihi Mahuika live in surprisingly restrained harmony in their harbourside home overlooking Wellington’s Evans Bay. By selecting, editing and resisting the temptation to go totally overboard, they have made their gallery-like home a timeless mix of design eras and styles – from the 1890s to the present, the ornate to the industrial.
Tibetan terrier Tenzin lent his name to Peter’s rocking chair design, positioned to take in the view from the front balcony; Sue McMillan of Seam made the cushions.
Though Airihi is not a collector herself, she’ll admit she enjoys sitting on a reupholstered New Zealand Rail seat while she waits for coffee from their La Cimbali espresso machine and working at a dining table that was once a Four Square grocery store sign in Russell. She does, however, reserve the power of veto. Too much orange – Peter’s favourite colour – and too little clear floor space for Tibetan terriers Tenzin and Archie and she’ll start to get twitchy.
Collections are kept tightly reined in and put to good use: an extensive selection of German ceramics in the entranceway is carefully grouped by colour and in the study a string of Edmonds baking powder tins across the front of Peter’s desk neatly obscures power cords.
Customising their industrial-chic home while it was being built six years ago offered Peter the opportunity to include nooks and crannies for efficient storage and to showcase selected objects from his stash of retro collectables. Those include an immaculately restored Shell petrol bowser, Tip Top ice cream signs, a vintage BSA Bantam motorcycle and original New Zealand travel posters from the heyday of train travel and tourist hotels. Anything old and iconic, especially if it has pop-art references, is assured of a place.
Carterton sculptor Sean Crawford’s corrugated dog.
Peter takes great delight in reminiscing about times past – the days when “good old-fashioned values were the norm”.
“Back then, purchases from your local dairy were recorded in an exercise book and honestly paid on time.”
A director of Staple Furniture and Design in Wellington, Peter is not a designer by training. His degrees are in mathematics and economics and by day he works for the government’s drug-funding agency Pharmac. But, as a long-time converter of Kiwiana logos and labels to his own pop-art ends, he keeps his hand in the art world by creating such pieces as his Tenzin rocking chair on the front balcony. He’s a fan of Sir Edmund Hillary’s sherpa, Tenzing Norgay – a man who “helped take New Zealand from down under to the top of the world”. Peter thinks the Nepalese mountaineer also proved that “legends are not always leaders and that supporting others is virtuous in itself”.
Having a hand in the design process has helped the couple keep the house streamlined – entertainment technology is tucked away in a wall accessible from both living room and kitchen and a gentle push against the white textured wall covered with framed travel posters allows access to the guest bedroom. “I like gadgets,” says Peter, “but I prefer they are only heard and not seen.” In the same vein, a custom-made roller door provides access under the stairs without blocking the passage.
But, though Peter admires the clean-lined, minimalist look, there’s plenty to reflect a very different aesthetic in the home he and Airihi call an “urban bach”. In the main bathroom, a French rococo chest from Wellington store Landed makes a scarlet and black statement. The ornate dark-stained 1890s kauri china cabinet in the kitchen was found on TradeMe where Peter also came across the Shell petrol bowser, along with a “bunch of rusty parts and a replica sign set”. He tracked down the bowser’s globe top in Auckland and Newtown panel beater Kim Jackson carried out its restoration.
Signs and symbols are a common theme. They’re seen in found objects such as the glass Tip Top sign and the red Fagg’s coffee sign, a gift from their coffee machine mechanic. And they’re in Peter’s own art which he hires out online through nzpride.co.nz, along with the travel posters, his collection of Whites Aviation aerial photographs and work by such New Zealand artists as Ian Scott, Heather Straka and Michael Tuffery.
Just as Airihi has come to terms with the addictive nature of her husband’s collecting gene, Peter accepts the pitfalls of his passion: “There’s too much to display but too much emotional connection to let go.”
Click on the "photo gallery" link at top right for more images from this story, including web exclusive photos.
Story: Ann Packer
Photographs: Paul McCredie
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