John Gush was born in South Africa and studied chemistry there before embarking on a career in the chemical industry that took him from South Africa, to New Jersey, to Canada, to England, and finally to Naperville, Ill. where he currently lives with his wife, and makes bespoke period furniture in the Federal style. After traveling several continents, Gush became a naturalized American citizen in 2002.
Most of the furniture he builds is based on American Federal period examples. However, he has also built furniture in the Cape Dutch style, inspired by his home country, which in the 18th century was a Dutch colony known as the Cape of Good Hope. Many of those regional pieces are built from “stinkwood” (Occotea bullata), an species indigenous to South Africa that is now very rare and protected. Stinkwood gets its name from its “excrementitious odor when freshly cut” in the words of an early writer.
