"I'm glad Doug Von Allmen is rich, " says Mitch Davies, the Australian cabinetmaker.

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The 71-year-old chairman of the American Wing developed his eye for craftsmanship as a teenage "amateur cabinetmaker" growing up in Philadelphia.

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Mitochondrial DNA extracted from the bones was matched to Michael Ibsen, a Canadian cabinetmaker and direct descendant of Richard III's sister, Anne of York.

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Fittingly, Van der Straeten lives with his partner, the shoe designer Bruno Frisoni in a former cabinetmaker's workshop in the Faubourg Saint-Antoine, the district historically devoted to such pursuits.

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He dropped his fledgling career as a cabinetmaker years ago, a symptom of moving to New York and leaving his shop behind, his dexterity now devoted to chainsawing on weekends at the gothic-revival cottage near Newburgh that he shares with his wife Fenella, a physician.

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