Pre-historic Chic

Shoppers at London’s Selfridges can now purchase the ultimate ecological antique: a piece of furniture carved from 30,000 year-old NZ kauri wood. The NZ government has allowed a limited quantity of the timber to be harvested from salt marsh swamps, where giant trees have laid perfectly preserved for millennia. Selfridges has already received an order on a three-metre long dining table, which it is selling for £6,950. “This table will certainly be the subject of dinner party talk,” says Selfridges spokesman Bruno Barba. “Whoever owns it will be dining in the grandeur of ancient history. I think customers will be ethically-minded, people wanting a return to simple shapes and something a bit different. It green and ethical because we are recycling trees.” The NZ government has granted Italian design house Riva the license to produce kauri furniture for Selfridges.