Page 138 - November 2016 London Bonhams asian Art

PROPERTY FROM THE COLLECTION OF
WALTER THOMAS GAZE COOPER
LOTS 307-329
Gaze Cooper, as he was known, was a prolific composer and
musician, writing his first serious piece, a piano concerto, in 1923. He
studied at the Royal College of Music and wrote four piano concertos,
eight symphonies, an opera and many piano pieces, to list a few.
His other great passion in life was collecting Egyptian, Chinese
and Greek art and antiquities. Gaze Cooper’s collection was most
impressive and Sir Mortimer Wheeler, the famed archaeologist, often
spoke of a rare artefact saying “that there are only two of its kind, one in 1942 and is still going strong today. He conducted the orchestra for
in the British museum and the other in the Gaze Cooper collection”.
In 1950 he was pictured in the Nottingham Evening News, cradling a
Tang Figure of Guanyin.
Gaze Cooper was a piano and theory teacher throughout his life,
still teaching at the age of 85 a few weeks before he died. He
taught at the Midland Conservatoire of Music and later at a studio in
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Nottingham and his home in Long Eaton. His pupils were of all ages
and he was well known for his charisma, enthusiasm, and quirky
ways, which endeared him to many. He was however a hard task
master expecting nothing less than his own commitment in others.
His pupils sometimes came face to face with his Asian art collection
as he often took a piece to place on the piano in his studio to help
him to feel at home. Always willing to share his knowledge, he enjoyed
giving lectures locally where he would take prized objects with him to
talk about.
In 1933 he founded the Midland Conservatoire of Music Symphony
Orchestra which become the Nottingham Symphony Orchestra (NSO)
over fifty years.