Early Victorian Cooke's Drainage Level in Mahogany Case Retailed by L Casella & Co

For sale, an early Victorian Cooke’s Drainage Level in original mahogany case retailed by L Casella & Co, London.

This simple level engraved with Cooke’s Drainage level to one side of the barrel and to L Casella and Co to the other, has a short 18cm brass barrel with “superior telescope, cross lines etched on the glass and ball and socket joint” as described in Casella’s catalogue of 1860. It has an integral bubble level fitted within the top of the barrel and fine tilt adjustment underneath by means of the large, knurled screw. The smaller knurled brass screw in front allows the release and adjustment of the ball and socket joint which would attach to a tripod stand or staff. According to Casella, the level is “strongly recommended by the Royal English, the Royal Irish, and the Highland Agricultural Societies”.

Described variously in catalogues as a drainage level or Agricultural Drainage Level this instrument is likely to have been one of Thomas Cooke’s earliest trading successes since it was first advertised by Thomas Cooke in 1849 before he had established his Buckingham Works and it remained a standard product for many retailers until at least the end of the Nineteenth century.

Retailers ordinarily included their paper label trade cards within the case but in this instance, Casella has applied more permanent secondary engraving to the other side of the telescope barrel. It is a very interesting convergence between two extraordinarily famous instrument makers of the Nineteenth Century and gives some flavour of the way in which the instrument trade worked. Casella was already well established in 1849 so it must have been hugely encouraging for Cooke to see his products gaining attention. His appearance at subsequent exhibitions in Paris and London cemented that position quite considerably since he stood alongside many of these famous figures.

Thomas Cooke was born in East Ridings, Yorkshire in 1807. His Father was a shoemaker of humble means which precluded him from being provided with an education worthy of his obvious talent. Dissatisfied with the prospect of a shoemaking career, Cooke taught himself astronomy and navigation and moved to York in 1829 at the age of twenty-two where he sought out a living as a private tutor of mathematics and writing. His spare time was otherwise devoted to the study of optics and the construction of telescopes.

In 1837, he took on premises in Stonegate, York where he immediately built a strong reputation for the manufacture of optical lenses and telescopes, receiving orders from numerous learned Yorkshiremen. A move to a larger shop in Coney Street became necessary shortly afterwards but by 1855, Cooke had also outgrown these premises and he purchased land to build a factory named the Buckingham Works in Bishopshill, York where with the assistance of his two sons, Frederick & Thomas he manufactured a diverse range of products including surveying instruments, clocks and steam engines to compliment the successful optical business. In the same year, he also won a first-class medal at the Paris Exposition Universelle for an equatorial refractor of his construction.

In 1860, Cooke’s reputation had grown large enough for him to be commissioned by Prince Albert to provide a 5.5-inch mounted telescope intended for the newly built Royal residence of Osborne House on the Isle of Wight. He also began to construct turret clocks which were eventually exhibited at the 1862 London Exhibition.

During the exhibition, Robert Stirling Newall of Gateshead purchased two very large optical glass discs from Chance Brothers of Birmingham and a year later, Cooke was commissioned to produce a mounted telescope using the enormous twenty-five inch discs. The Newall telescope took six years to construct, it was by some margin, the largest astronomical object glass ever produced and the telescope whe