‘The addictive habit’

Wellington’s antique and second-hand shops brought Walter Cook face to face with the objects behind the theories and styles he’d been reading about. His first purchase initiated him into what he called ‘the addictive habit and thrill of hunting quarry in second-hand shops’.

Travis Antiques and Odds and Ends were among the shops that enjoyed Walter’s custom in the 1960s. In 1978, he moved to Thorndon, becoming a regular at nearby second-hand shops like Pleasant Place Antiques and 302 Tinakori Road. He also bought new pieces, mostly from James Smith’s department store, which imported the latest modernist designs from Europe.

Walter’s collection is a remarkable showcase of European style. Perhaps equally remarkable is the fact that he amassed it mainly from shops within walking distance of central Wellington.

‘I have no idea what it was in my character that led me to become an obsessive collector.’
Walter Cook in ‘The Confessions of an Obsessive Collector’, Turnbull Library Record 40, 2007

Text taken from exhibition Walter Cook: A Collector's Quest 2012.