Cooke, Isaac

Bath, Som.; upholder and cabinet maker (fl.1765–1778)

Employed by John, 4th Duke of Bedford. Presented account for £30 in June 1765 in respect of work carried out for the Duke at Bath. Between June and August 1765 supplied goods and carried out work amounting to £578 2s 9d. Included in the bill were bedsteads, ash chairs, deal tables, night tables, toilet tables, mattresses, pillows, blankets, two dining tables, twelve French chairs, six French elbow chairs, a walnut bureau, cherry tree chairs and frames, and glasses for two pictures. Another bill dated November 1766 was for cherry tree chairs and deal stools and tables amounting to £86. Between 1766– 70 Cooke continued to carry out work for the Duke, repairing furniture and textiles but on a much-reduced scale with only £16 being charged for the whole period. In 1771 furniture from Robert Clive’s house in Bath was sent under the supervision of Cooke to Oakly Park, near Ludlow, which Clive had recently acquired. The cost of packing and freight was £22 19s. In 1777–78 he supplied Bath Town Hall with a pattern table, three dozen chairs, two armchairs and set of thirty chairs.

Sources: DEFM; Fairclough, ‘In the Richest and Most Elegant Manner: A Suite of Furniture for Clive of India’, Furniture History (2000).