LONDON, ENGLAND.- An important marble figure by renowned English sculptor Henry Cheere (1703-1781) is to be offered for sale in Sotheby’s European Sculpture & Works of Art sale 900-1900 on Friday, December 12, 2003. The statue of George Cooke, the elder (1675-1740) - a distinguished barrister who held the powerful post of Chief Protonotory of the Court of Common Pleas is being sold by Sir Elton John. Alexander Kader, Head of Sotheby’s European Sculpture & Works of Art department, said: "This is very exciting as sculptural works of this quality and from this period, rarely appear on the market." 

The white marble figure which is more than three metres high and weighs almost three tonnes, has been on loan to the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, courtesy of Sir Elton John, for the last two years, after it was found too large even for his country house. It is estimated to fetch £250,000-350,000.  

The work was the creation of Henry Cheere, the most well-known and respected English sculptor of the 18th century. Cheere was the only sculptor of the time to rival the dominance of the Antwerp-born sculptors, such as Michael Rysbrack (1693-1770) and Peter Scheemakers (1691-1781). Having initially been the protégé of the gentleman architect of various Oxford colleges - George Clarke, he became a London celebrity figure, building up numerous commissions from great connoisseurs.  

The sculpture was created as a cross between a funerary monument and decorative garden statue. Although a classical piece in style and function, it is consciously Roman, relating to the Roman tradition of ancestral cults. These cults focused on the display of images and busts carried at funeral corteges.  

The commemorative statue of George Cooke in Sotheby’s sale therefore, includes an imitation of a Roman funerary altar on which the rituals of these ancestral cults were performed. The idea of the rituals was to preserve the hallowed memory of a family member by placing their image where it would always be seen on entering a property.  

It is no coincidence then that the figure stood originally in a grove of cypress trees on a garden terrace near the Cooke’s family home in Middlesex. When the family’s estate was demolished in the 19th century, the statue was moved to a property called Stoke Bruerne, the Northamptonshire property of the Vernon family. Here it stood in a grove welcoming visitors at the entrance to the estate.  

There are references in this statue to other great works, such as Roubiliac’s tribute to Handel at the Victoria & Albert Museum and Scheemakers’ monument to William Shakespeare, in Westminster Abbey. The Elizabethan references in the piece are thought to have a possible political undertone, referring to the nostalgia felt at the time for the Queen and the days when Britain was thought to be at its greatest. This was in direct opposition to how it was thought to have become, under the whig ministry of Robert Walpole (1676-1745), Britain’s first Prime Minister. It parallels well with George Cooke and his son’s views, as they were both politicians in opposition to the whig ministry.