Story: Crafts and applied arts

Istvan Nagy with spinning wheel, 1975

Growing interest in weaving after the Second World War led to a revival of craft spinning. Hungarian immigrant Istvan Nagy began making spinning wheels in Wellington in the late 1960s. He made two styles of kauri spinning wheel: saxony and upright (pictured). Nagy sold his wheels locally and also exported to the United States.

Using this item

Alexander Turnbull Library, Dominion Post Collection (PA-Group-00685)

Reference: EP/1975/2758/26-F

Permission of the Alexander Turnbull Library, National Library of New Zealand, Te Puna Mātauranga o Aotearoa, must be obtained before any re-use of this image.

All images & media in this story

How to cite this page

Douglas Lloyd Jenkins and Lucy Hammonds, Crafts and applied arts – Craft in the 1950s and 1960s, Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, https://teara.govt.nz/en/photograph/45308/istvan-nagy-with-spinning-wheel-1975 (accessed 4 June 2026).

Story by Douglas Lloyd Jenkins and Lucy Hammonds, published 16 May 2014.

Comments

Rhondi Schmidt
28 August 2020

Hi, I just acquired a Nagy upright! I love it! I have always wanted to learn how to spin and now I will. Yay! - rhondi