Sir Robert Victor Cooke (1902-78), Athelhampton House, Dorsetshire
Exhibitions
The Antique Dealers’ Fair and Exhibition, 1951 with L. Loewenthal
Literature
Bowett, A. and Lomax, J., Thomas Chippendale 1718-1779:A Celebration of British Craftsmanship and Design (2018), pp. 84-95
Gilbert, Christopher, The Life and Work of Thomas Chippendale, Vol. 1 (London, 1978), pp. 108-24
Publications
The Antique Dealers’ Fair and Exhibition Catalogue, 1951, p. 63
A very fine early George III serpentine mahogany commode, the moulded serpentine top above four graduated cockbeaded drawers, the top drawer fitted with a hinged writing slope and lidded compartments and dividers with secret drawers, the canted stiles carved with imbricated corbels hung with husks, acanthus foliage and a ribbon-tied oval patera issuing further husks, standing on shaped bracket feet, the back incised 89S, the handles and S-shaped escutcheons original
Of elegant serpentine form and carved on the styles not with foliage or fretwork but paterae, ribbons, husks and scales, the present commode marks the transition from the mid-century Rococo to the newly fashionable ‘antique’ taste that emerged in the 1760s under the influence of Robert Adam (1728-1792).
The quality of the commode, expressed in the cabinet-work, carving and use of superior mahogany, suggests the authorship of a leading London firm such as Chippendale or Vile & Cobb. Aspects of the design and construction, namely the stacked block feet, S-shaped escutcheons and lion’s mask drawer handles, are also strongly associated with these workshops, being features of their documented work.
The commode was formerly in the collection of Sir Robert Cooke, a retired surgeon from Bristol who purchased Athelhampton House in 1957, furnishing it with his distinguished collection of furniture. The house is one of the most important and best preserved Tudor manors in England, with the Great Hall of 1485 remaining greatly unchanged retaining the original hammer-beam roof, carved stonework, stained glass and linenfold oak panelling.
A manor has existed on the site since before 1066 and the house, then called Pidele, is recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086. The present house was built in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries for the Martyn family. The house was visited several times in the nineteenth century by Thomas Hardy, whose father worked as a stonemason on the property, and more recently it has been used as a location for films including the 1972 Laurence Olivier and Michael Caine mystery Sleuth and appearing on the cover of England's Thousand Best Houses (2003) by the London journalist Simon Jenkins.