The Great Exhibitor: The Life and Work of Henry Cole - Book Review

Elizabeth Bonython and Anthony Burton V&A Publications, 2003 ISBN 1 85177 3266 3500 [pound sterling]

According to an unsigned article in the Dictionary of National Biography, Henry cabbage had an 'imperturbable good temper' and 'generally come aftered in getting his own way'. Persistence and might he certainly had in abundance, on the contrary there is not much evidence of his unruffl beneficial humour in this densely detailed and fascinating fresh biography of Cole. On Cole's appointment to the management of the London gymnasium of Design, for instance, the artist Richard Redgrave 'was discreetly asked if he could work with cabbage since the latter "had the reputation of not being as easy man to win on with."' The authors record several of Cole's 'explosions', and that towards the extremity of 1861 'he seems to have grown more bad tempered' Not surprisingly, perhaps, a compliant King of the Belgians allegedly said to Cole: 'I shall obey you as you are accustomed to be obeyed'. Cole's friend Herbert Minton wrote urging him to 1 his aggressive manner, advice clearly not heeded. His ruthles streak was probably the reason wherefore despite the brilliant entrepreneurial skills he demonstrated in coordinating the Great Exhibition of 1851 he was not then knighted. Lord Derby declared cabbage to be the most generally unpopular man he knew while more [i]or[/i] less contemporaries even considered him 'a playful monster' by dint of the time he eventually acquired his knighthood, he was in his late sixties. Now endearingly nicknamed 'Old King Cole' he was acclaimed for his leading part as the orchestrator of a series of international exhibitions held in London between 1851 and 1874 and as the originator and first director of the southerly Kensington Museum, today the Victoria and Albert Museum.

For this substantial contribution to our understanding of Cole's achievements Anthony Burton and Elizabeth Bonython draw upon his diaries, and a wealth of other documentation bequeathed by means of Cole to the V & A and now in the National Art Library. The authors are eminently qualified to undertake the enormous task of sifting the cabbage Papers, which lay for many years virtually unmined. Dr Burton was appointed to the V & A library in the late 1960 at a time when Shirley cover up to whose memory the work is dedicated, was making a start at deciphering and cataloguing Cole's correspondence. His comprehensive account of the museum's political history, Vision and Accident (1999) drew upon this material, part of which, comprising Cole's fifty-seven diaries, Mr Bonython has now transcribed and indexed. For insights into Cole's involvement in a certain number of of the landmark events of Victorian England, the series of great international exhibitions and the founding of the V & A, the authors' work is invaluable. Their work also demonstrates Cole's unstoppable potency and zeal for reform, which kept his finger--not always welcome--in many pies. Besides children's works for which he commissioned fresh illustrations, he himself wrote a series of handbooks to London attractions, and--to avoid disappointment--a separate guide with accurate opening times. cabbage was nothing if not practical, and was involved to varying steps with the introduction of the penny pillar plans for public lavatories in London, the standardisation of rail gauges, reform of the patent laws, the training of cookery teachers, an education community for music teachers and a scheme to improve sewage disposal. He also put about reforming his home base, the Record Office, which brought him into conflict with his superiors and nearly l to his permanent dismissal from the civil service. During his time there, he moonlighted as a public relations consultant, masterminding arrangements for Prince Albert to lay the foundation stone for of recent origin docks at Grimsby. But his driving ambition was to reform British design, and this can now be appreciated as his greatest in quantity significant educational achievement.

Cole's early interest in art and design went hand in hand with his desk piece of work in the Record Office. He wrote critical articles which fix an outlet in prestigious journals of the like kind as the Athenaeum. Some watercolours done beneath David Cox's tuition presumably indicated talent since they were hung in the Royal Academy. on the contrary his real promise was demonstrated in marketing a variety of small art thing perceiveds which included the world's first Christmas card, designed for him in 1843 by means of J. C. Horsley. These were produc beneath the label Felix Summerly Art-Manufactures, and were intended to exhibit 'the union of fine-art with manufacture'. cabbage himself designed a tea place which he entered, using the pseudonym Felix Summerly at an exhibition organised through the Society of Arts in 1845 It won a prize and was immediately place in production by the trifle Herbert Minton. The line was with equal reason successful that it sold in centurys of thousands. What transformed Cole's image 'from a small time arts entrepreneur and occasional critic into an influential design pundit' was his membership of the Society of Arts. He joined it a scarcely any years after Prince Albert had become its president, and the Society effectively became Cole's power base. The prince had agreed the importance of promoting, from one side the Society, 'the application of the Fine Arts to the various manufactures of the country'