The Walter Cook Collection: a small jewel in the crown of Te Papa

Reviewed by John Daly-Peoples

Towards Modernism: The Walter Cook Collection at Te Papa

A treasure trove of design.

By Justine Olsen 

RRP $75

Reviewed by John Daly-Peoples

“In 1965 a twenty-four-year-old Bachelor of Arts student named Walter Cook bought an Art Nouveau tea set at the Willis St Wellington secondhand shop Odds & Ends. In the context of mid 1960’s design, with its flat patterns and stainless steel, the Liberty & Co pewter tea set would have seemed totally old fashioned to most but Cook saw it for style”.

This is how a new book on the unlikely art collector, Walter Cook opens. The book Towards Modernism: The Walter Cook Collection at Te Papa celebrates the collection which is a small jewel in Te Papa’s crown. It also acknowledges the Wellington collector’s life and commitment  over several decades with the book which illustrates over 200 works from the collection with full page colour illustrations

From that first work Walter Cook went on to amass a highly significant collection of ceramic, glassware and metal work. Apart from the collections importance it also shows how a collection can be built up without having to pay high auction house prices.

For most of Cook’s purchases the book documents the date of acquisition along with the place and price paid. These notes in themselves provide and insight into Cook’s buying. While a number of the works were bought in Wellington there are also purchases made in Auckland and London. There are purchases from department stores, antique shops, secondhand shops, and markets,

One of the earliest works is a Doulton “Jug” by Hannah Barlow (1873) bought from Alma Fosters antique store on Dixon St in 1980. And the latest purchase was of some1979 salt and pepper mills designed by Thygesen & Sorensen from the Danish firm PP Linie

Most of his purchases were from retail stores where he paid the current retail prices of $30 – $100 but he appears to have found many of his works in secondhand stores. So, a Susie Cooper tea set was bought in 1981on the Wakefield Markets at a stall run by Paul Orsman.

There was Pilkington Vase purchased for $30 in 1982, a Watcombe Pottery Palm Pot for $3.00 two “Morris” ware candlesticks for$5 in 1965, , a “Tudric” Vase for $5 and  a “Tudric” dish for $2.00.

Two bowls by the Swedish artist Stig Lindberg were purchased in 1985 – “Pungo for $35 and Veckla for $6.00.

The book has full page illustrations of the works from the collection grouped within particular periods – The Arts and Crafts Movement, Aestheticism, Art Nouveau, Art Deco and the interwar period and Postwar Modernism.

For each of these chapters Olsen provides descriptions of the history and aesthetic thinking behind the works created. So, we get details about the potteries and the individuals who created the works as well as an indication of how the works in the collection fit within the development of the art form.

Cook also acquired an example of Bretby Art Pottery which was purchased at the New Zealand Exhibition in Christchurch of 1906 / 07 and later purchased from Neale Auld’s Willbank Court Antiques.

In this early period there are also examples of Royal Copenhagen work with some ceramic plates

Along with information on the potteries and artists of the period including a profile of the importance of Christopher Dresser an important artist, designer and promoter English design in the latter part of the nineteenth century.

The Art Nouveau section features some of the elaborate work of the time with work from the Minton Pottery, Villeroy & Bosch as well as metalwork from the German company Wurttembergische Metallwarenfabrik.

The Art Deco section features a number of works from the Doulton and Co factory along with biographies of some of the importance female designers including Clarice Cliff, Truda Carter and Susie Cooper.

There is also a substantial entry about Keith Murray who worked for Wedgewood and whose designs influenced Ernest Shufflebotham who had a major impact on New Zealand pottery through Crown Lynn.

The Postwar Modernism section features work by Susie Cooper and Scandinavian Design which includes Rosenthal and designers Nittsjo Keramik, Carl-Harry Stallhane and Stig Lindberg.

What the book also reveals is that a collector of any type of artwork needs to have all the qualities Walter Cook had -.an understanding of the market, the history of the objects, a knowledge of aesthetics, dedication and a keen eye

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