Robert Sheen: A Wood-Turning Legend

By Burton Jones, owner of the Littlest Drawbridge Gift Shop

Famous people who have died are often referred to as legends. Robert Sheen, 78, is a legend in his own time (and thankfully in ours, too), because he still carries on the much-venerated but nearly dormant local craft of turning Bermuda cedar.

Bermuda cedar (Juniperus bermudiana) once covered the islands of Bermuda, but it almost became extinct after the Second World War, when the trees became infested by scales, causing a major blight. Ninety percent died within nine years. Used in most buildings and homes, Bermuda cedar represented a major part of the local economy and was even exported to England for shipbuilding. The exotically fragrant native cedar trees are now making a comeback thanks to local conservation efforts. 

Bob Sheen was around 8 years old when, out of sheer boyish inquisitiveness, he walked into the workshop of James “Jimmy” Horton, one of many fine cedar turners from Somerset Village in the West End. Jimmy put him to work right away polishing cedar using fine steel wool and applying a light shellac. Jimmy Horton was meticulous, and he disciplined Bob on his first day with a “slap upside the head” (as native Bermudians refer to it) for not paying attention to detail. Bob never looked back after that day, not for fear of another slap but because he was hooked on working to produce the finest Bermuda cedar crafts.

After working with his father, James Sheen, producing cedar in Somerset during the late ’50s, Bob started his own workshop in the ’60s with a staff of nine, creating cedar lamps, boxes, candle holders, coasters, hurricane lamps and his signature piece, the Eternity goblet. The Eternity goblet is called such because the goblet and the rings are turned from one continuous piece of wood. The single-ring goblet, denoting friendship, and the double-ring goblets (marriage) were given as wedding gifts — a Bermuda tradition.

Although Bob now largely works alone, Merle, his wife of more than 30 years, helps him with the polishing now that she no longer makes her cedar dolls, long purchased by doll collectors everywhere. Bob’s beautiful work may be seen and purchased at The Littlest Drawbridge Gift Shop in the Clocktower Mall, located at the Royal Naval Dockyard in the West End.

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