• Selwyn's Totara Lantern lit on a timber bench
  • The totara lantern glowing on a windowsill at dusk
  • The same lantern by daylight and lit at night
  • Close-up of the painted tree on the translucent leaf glass
  • Close-up of the hand-cut driftwood base
  • Selwyn rubbing oil into a finished totara base

Last remaining stock • In 4 active carts right now • Only 212 ever made

Selwyn's Totara Lantern

Selwyn's Totara Lantern

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Selwyn Pethybridge
Hand-Sanded by Selwyn Pethybridge — Eketāhuna, Wairarapa
★★★★★ 4.9 (12)
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Selwyn's Totara Lantern lit on a timber bench

Selwyn's Totara Lantern

$49.00
$49.00 $89.00
SAVE $40 Sold out
🌳

Cut by hand from a 212-year-old Wairarapa totara, after the cyclone brought it down

Selwyn Pethybridge, seventy-six, Eketāhuna, Wairarapa. Forty-four years at the head saw and fifty-three years married to the woman who kept a light in his window. His hands are finished, and 212 bases are all that is left.

“A broker from Auckland offered to take every board by the cubic metre, cash, one appointment. It would have ended up as sixteen-hundred-dollar lamps in hotel foyers, and nobody would ever have been told where it came from. Dulcie kept a light in our kitchen window for fifty-three years. That tree isn’t leaving here by the cubic metre.”

— Selwyn Pethybridge, retired sawmiller, Eketāhuna, Wairarapa

What arrives
🌳
The Lantern
Glass shade with a branching tree inside, on a hand-numbered totara base.
📜
Ring Card
Names the year your ring grew, out of the 212 Selwyn counted on the stump.
🔋
Cordless Light
Battery-operated. No power point, no cord. Any windowsill, any bedside table.
🎁
Gift Box
Most of these end up in someone else’s window.
Four things that make this lantern impossible to copy
🔢
The Ring Number
Every base is hand-numbered on the underside, one through 212 — one for each ring Selwyn counted on the stump. The card names the year your ring grew, starting with 1812. No other lantern comes with a birth year.
🪵
The Heart Cut
Only the heartwood is used — the dark, dense centre of the trunk, where the rings sit tightest and the grain runs unbroken from edge to edge. Most of a fallen totara never becomes a base.
🌲
The Wairarapa Finish
Sanded by hand and rubbed with oil. No stain, no lacquer, nothing sprayed on. That is why the heart streaks still shift when the light moves, and why the box smells like totara when you open it.
🔍
The Kitchen-Table Test
Don’t take anyone’s word for it. Turn the base over and count the rings, feel how heavy it is for its size, hold it to your nose. Old totara smells of resin and tannin. A moulded copy has no rings, no weight and no smell.
Checked by a forester

“Three things tell you what you’ve got: the ring count, the weight and the smell. A moulded base can fake the look of one of them. Nobody fakes all three. And a totara that size and that age, standing on its own out on the terrace — most foresters go a whole career without seeing one come down. What is on that man’s shelves is the last of it. There is no second tree to go and get.”

— Bruce Hollings, retired forester, Wairarapa totara country

Who this is for
🪟 Anyone who leaves a light on for someone 💐 Daughters buying for their mothers 🤍 Someone facing the evenings alone 🌲 People who miss the bush 🪵 Woodworkers and wood people 🛏 Bedside tables, windowsills and reading corners 🎁 Mother’s Day, birthdays and housewarmings 🏡 Wairarapa and river-country locals
What you are actually getting
  • Real Wairarapa totara, not a print. A hand-sanded, oiled base cut from one 212-year-old tree — with a kitchen-table test anyone can run in about ten seconds.
  • Yours exists once. The rings, the grain and the heart streaks never repeat, so no two bases are the same.
  • A documented year. A hand-numbered base and a card naming the year your ring grew — not a generic authenticity slip.
  • No cord, no power point. Battery-operated, so it sits on a windowsill, a bedside table or a bookshelf — wherever somebody should see a light.
  • Small on purpose. About 9.5 centimetres tall, made for a windowsill or a bedside table, not a table lamp. Heartwood from a single trunk only goes so far, and Selwyn wanted it to reach 212 homes.
  • 212 exist and there is no restock. The tree came down in February 2024, and Selwyn is out of the shed on 30 November. After that the rest are posted from Palmerston North, while stock lasts.
🛡
30 days, no questions

If it doesn’t make you switch off the big light the first night, send it back within 30 days and get your money back. In forty-four years at the mill, nobody ever sent a board of Selwyn’s back.

Please read before ordering

Every base is cut from a different part of the same trunk. Ring width, colour and figure vary from lantern to lantern — the photographs show examples, not the exact base you will receive. That variation is the wood, not a defect.

The lantern is small: about 9.5 cm tall and 7 cm wide. It is a windowsill and bedside light, not a room lamp. We would rather say so here than have anyone surprised when the box arrives.

Product details
Base Wairarapa totara heartwood, all from a single tree, Eketāhuna, Wairarapa
Base finish Hand-sanded and oil-rubbed. No stain, no lacquer
Shade Glass, with a branching-tree design inside
Light Warm white
Power Battery-operated, no cord
Size Approx. 7 × 7 × 9.5 cm
Weight Approx. 130 g
Numbering Hand-numbered 1–212 on the underside of the base
In the box Lantern, ring card, gift box
Timber recovered by Selwyn Pethybridge, Eketāhuna, Wairarapa — tree came up around 1812, brought down by an ex-cyclone in February 2024
Quantity available 212 pieces. No restock. Shed closes 30 November; remaining stock posted from Palmerston North.
Shipping Free NZ-wide shipping, dispatched within 1–2 working days
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The Final Sale

Message from Selwyn:

The shed outside Eketāhuna closes on 30 November. Two hundred and twelve lanterns is everything that is left of the totara my wife watched from the kitchen window for fifty-three years. Every base was cut, sanded and numbered by hand, on the nights I could not sleep. Nothing rushed. Nothing outsourced.

When they are gone, they are gone — and so is the shed. There is no second tree.

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Free NZ-Wide Delivery

Free delivery across New Zealand

- Dispatched within 1–2 working days
- Delivery time: 2–4 working days
- Insured: every parcel is fully insured

🌳 Carbon-neutral delivery

View full details

800+ Happy Customers

Excellent 4.9

What Selwyn's customers are saying

Customer photo of the hand-made driftwood tree lantern

I was a bit worried it would be one of those thin plastic things that look nice in the photo and cheap in your hand. It is not. The base is a solid lump of timber, properly heavy, and the glass is real glass with a bit of weight to it. Sits on the shelf and does not budge.

Verified

Kirsty N., Lower Hutt

Customer photo of the hand-made driftwood tree lantern

Ordered one after reading about Selwyn in the paper. It came packed in heaps of paper and card, not a mark on it. The light is warm, not that cold blue you get with cheap LEDs. I leave it on the bench of an evening and the kitchen feels different.

Verified

Jeanette W., Masterton

Customer photo of the hand-made driftwood tree lantern

I work with timber a fair bit so I was curious. Turned the base over and you can count the rings with your thumbnail. No stain on it either, just oil, which is how it should be done. For eighty nine dollars I reckon somebody has got their sums wrong, but I am not complaining.

Verified

Grant M., Napier

Customer photo of the hand-made driftwood tree lantern

My eyes are not what they were and I wanted something I could leave on without it being harsh. This is about right. It is smaller than I pictured, about the size of a jam jar with a wooden foot, and that suits me fine on the little table by the chair. No cord to trip over either.

Verified

Barry L., Greytown

Customer photo of the hand-made driftwood tree lantern

It lives on the kitchen windowsill now. Honestly the best part is there is no plug and no wire, so I could put it exactly where I wanted instead of wherever the power point happens to be. Looks lovely from the drive when you come home in the dark.

Verified

Ngaire S., Featherston

Customer photo of the hand-made driftwood tree lantern

Bought it for the spare room and ended up keeping it for myself. It is the only light I have on in the evening. The tree in the glass throws a soft shadow on the wall which I did not expect. Worth more than I paid, and I do not say that often.

Verified

Tania F., Upper Hutt

Customer photo of the hand-made driftwood tree lantern

I was a bit worried it would be one of those thin plastic things that look nice in the photo and cheap in your hand. It is not. The base is a solid lump of timber, properly heavy, and the glass is real glass with a bit of weight to it. Sits on the shelf and does not budge.

Verified

Kirsty N., Lower Hutt

Customer photo of the hand-made driftwood tree lantern

Ordered one after reading about Selwyn in the paper. It came packed in heaps of paper and card, not a mark on it. The light is warm, not that cold blue you get with cheap LEDs. I leave it on the bench of an evening and the kitchen feels different.

Verified

Jeanette W., Masterton

Customer photo of the hand-made driftwood tree lantern

I work with timber a fair bit so I was curious. Turned the base over and you can count the rings with your thumbnail. No stain on it either, just oil, which is how it should be done. For eighty nine dollars I reckon somebody has got their sums wrong, but I am not complaining.

Verified

Grant M., Napier

Customer photo of the hand-made driftwood tree lantern

My eyes are not what they were and I wanted something I could leave on without it being harsh. This is about right. It is smaller than I pictured, about the size of a jam jar with a wooden foot, and that suits me fine on the little table by the chair. No cord to trip over either.

Verified

Barry L., Greytown

Customer photo of the hand-made driftwood tree lantern

It lives on the kitchen windowsill now. Honestly the best part is there is no plug and no wire, so I could put it exactly where I wanted instead of wherever the power point happens to be. Looks lovely from the drive when you come home in the dark.

Verified

Ngaire S., Featherston

Customer photo of the hand-made driftwood tree lantern

Bought it for the spare room and ended up keeping it for myself. It is the only light I have on in the evening. The tree in the glass throws a soft shadow on the wall which I did not expect. Worth more than I paid, and I do not say that often.

Verified

Tania F., Upper Hutt

Customer photo of the hand-made driftwood tree lantern

I was a bit worried it would be one of those thin plastic things that look nice in the photo and cheap in your hand. It is not. The base is a solid lump of timber, properly heavy, and the glass is real glass with a bit of weight to it. Sits on the shelf and does not budge.

Verified

Kirsty N., Lower Hutt

Customer photo of the hand-made driftwood tree lantern

Ordered one after reading about Selwyn in the paper. It came packed in heaps of paper and card, not a mark on it. The light is warm, not that cold blue you get with cheap LEDs. I leave it on the bench of an evening and the kitchen feels different.

Verified

Jeanette W., Masterton

Customer photo of the hand-made driftwood tree lantern

I work with timber a fair bit so I was curious. Turned the base over and you can count the rings with your thumbnail. No stain on it either, just oil, which is how it should be done. For eighty nine dollars I reckon somebody has got their sums wrong, but I am not complaining.

Verified

Grant M., Napier

Customer photo of the hand-made driftwood tree lantern

My eyes are not what they were and I wanted something I could leave on without it being harsh. This is about right. It is smaller than I pictured, about the size of a jam jar with a wooden foot, and that suits me fine on the little table by the chair. No cord to trip over either.

Verified

Barry L., Greytown

Customer photo of the hand-made driftwood tree lantern

It lives on the kitchen windowsill now. Honestly the best part is there is no plug and no wire, so I could put it exactly where I wanted instead of wherever the power point happens to be. Looks lovely from the drive when you come home in the dark.

Verified

Ngaire S., Featherston

Customer photo of the hand-made driftwood tree lantern

Bought it for the spare room and ended up keeping it for myself. It is the only light I have on in the evening. The tree in the glass throws a soft shadow on the wall which I did not expect. Worth more than I paid, and I do not say that often.

Verified

Tania F., Upper Hutt

Customer photo of the hand-made driftwood tree lantern

I was a bit worried it would be one of those thin plastic things that look nice in the photo and cheap in your hand. It is not. The base is a solid lump of timber, properly heavy, and the glass is real glass with a bit of weight to it. Sits on the shelf and does not budge.

Verified

Kirsty N., Lower Hutt

Customer photo of the hand-made driftwood tree lantern

Ordered one after reading about Selwyn in the paper. It came packed in heaps of paper and card, not a mark on it. The light is warm, not that cold blue you get with cheap LEDs. I leave it on the bench of an evening and the kitchen feels different.

Verified

Jeanette W., Masterton

Customer photo of the hand-made driftwood tree lantern

I work with timber a fair bit so I was curious. Turned the base over and you can count the rings with your thumbnail. No stain on it either, just oil, which is how it should be done. For eighty nine dollars I reckon somebody has got their sums wrong, but I am not complaining.

Verified

Grant M., Napier

Customer photo of the hand-made driftwood tree lantern

My eyes are not what they were and I wanted something I could leave on without it being harsh. This is about right. It is smaller than I pictured, about the size of a jam jar with a wooden foot, and that suits me fine on the little table by the chair. No cord to trip over either.

Verified

Barry L., Greytown

Customer photo of the hand-made driftwood tree lantern

It lives on the kitchen windowsill now. Honestly the best part is there is no plug and no wire, so I could put it exactly where I wanted instead of wherever the power point happens to be. Looks lovely from the drive when you come home in the dark.

Verified

Ngaire S., Featherston

Customer photo of the hand-made driftwood tree lantern

Bought it for the spare room and ended up keeping it for myself. It is the only light I have on in the evening. The tree in the glass throws a soft shadow on the wall which I did not expect. Worth more than I paid, and I do not say that often.

Verified

Tania F., Upper Hutt

See Selwyn's Last Totara Lanterns

Frequently Asked Questions

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Got a question? Here's how to reach us.

My daughter Shona and I personally reply to every single email — as fast as we possibly can. Whether you have a question about your order or just want to talk timber, we’re here.

You can reach us:

  • Mon – Fri: 9:00 AM – 5:00 PM (NZDT)
  • Saturday: 10:00 AM – 3:00 PM (NZDT)

Email: info@cedarandtinco.com

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Can I return my order if I don't like it?

Of course. We stand behind everything on Cedar & Tin Co. 100%. If you're not happy, neither are we. Just shoot us an email within 90 days and we'll make it right — no hassle, no headaches.

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How are your products made?

Every single product on Cedar & Tin is 100% handmade — crafted by hand, using only premium quality materials. We're proud to carry on a tradition of craftsmanship that has been passed down through generations.

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