Saddlery, masonry, cabinet-making, wood-work, carpentry work, and plastering, such as in gables and pediments, have long been skills associated with slave craftsmen – especially those of South East Asian descent – and their descendants in the Cape. The actual manufacture of the Tuynhuys door as well as the construction of the building is shrouded in the mists of time and history. Yet research on slave history in the Cape give insights from which it is possible to make an informed deduction.
The skills of saddlery, masonry, cabinet-making, woodworking, carpentry work, and plastering, often associated with enslaved craftsmen, particularly those of Southeast Asian descent, were used in building the Tuynhuys. The exact details of its construction are unknown due to a lack of historical records, but research on Cape slave history can help us understand how it was built.