Word: cookson
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1950-1959
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...pleasant enough, but not close to par for Cole Porter: it has a "school of Cole Porter" air. The lyrics would not be a credit to anyone, and for Porter they fall woefully flat. Abe Burrows' book, largely concerned with the love of a priggish young judge (Peter Cookson) and a prancing, Montmartre Jezebel, rises only once-in a funny duel scene-from banality to Burrows...
...first inkling that The Musicians was still in existence came in the mid-'30s, when a north-of-England antique dealer named Joe Cookson spotted an interesting painting in a Cumberland country house. "It was very grimy," recalls Dealer Cookson, "and you could see that it had been painted over and over. The name 'Caravaggio' was on it, and the tag end of the 'Michelangelo...
...Cookson had never heard of the missing Musicians. He got the painting at a bargain when the owner died, then let it gather dust in his shop for ten years. After the war, he thrust it on an old customer, a retired British navy surgeon, Captain W. G. Thwaytes. "You can have it for ?200," he told Thwaytes. The captain said he had never paid ?200 for a picture. "Oh, go on," urged Cookson, "have it for ?100 [about $400 at the time]. I'm sure it's a genuine Caravaggio...
...picture home but never bothered to have it examined. Last year a friend showed a snapshot of Captain Thwaytes's picture to an expert in London. The expert gasped, demanded to see the picture. Sure enough, despite flaking and repeated clumsy attempts at restoration, it was, as Dealer Cookson had said all along, a genuine Caravaggio. "Expert restoration established it as the long-lost Musicians. The Metropolitan Museum put in a prompt bid, got it from v, delighted Captain Thwaytes for something more than...
Only one mystery remains: Where was the painting all those years before Dealer Cookson spotted it? The experts may never find out. The lone record of the family from which Cookson bought it is a 1933 inventory that reads: "No. 846-a musical party signed Helang da Caravaggio, 36 x 46 inches...