Robert ‘Mouseman’ Thompson furniture to sell
A selection of early Robert ‘Mouseman’ Thompson furniture will be offered in a 20th Century Design Sale on October 5 at Tennants in North Yorkshire.
Perhaps most excitingly for fans of Mouseman, the celebrated and sought-after maker, is a rare circa 1926 English oak hutch cupboard, which has two of Robert Thompson’s own hand-carved mice with front paws, which were only included on very early pieces, and most unusually they are undercut so their heads and chests are raised off the wood underneath. The cupboard is estimated at £6,000-8,000.
A mouse in the same raised pose can be found on the mantelpiece in Robert Thompson’s cottage in Kilburn, still home to the firm today. The hutch is also carved with a heraldic motif with a bee and the word ‘Industria’, an identical crest to that on a suite of Mouseman furniture that sold in 2018.
The hutch comes with provenance from the Preston/Isherwood family, from Lancashire. Joe Isherwood was a great friend of Robert Thompson, and Joe’s son Jack purchased numerous pieces of Mouseman Furniture. His daughter Mary married Harry Preston, and the pair, too, commissioned furniture from Robert Thompson for their marital home in Burnley. A Pair of English oak easy chairs made circa 1930 for the Prestons are also included in the sale, on offer with an estimate of £8,000-10,000. The chairs have bespoke iron fittings under the arms, under one arm a whisky glass holder, and under the other an ashtray.
A further group of articles of Mouseman furniture in the sale were commissioned in the 1930s for Tudor Croft, an Arts and Crafts house on the edge of Guisborough, which was built by Ronald (Ron) Crossley in 1935. Crossley ran the family brickworks in Commondale, and the house was constructed using their speciality ‘Tudor’ bricks.
Robert Thompson was commissioned to help fit the house, including panelling the living and dining rooms, fitting and inglenook fireplace, beams, and front door as well as free-standing pieces of furniture. Indeed, there was even a Mouseman beam, carved with ‘RGC 1935’ supporting the loggia on the southern face of the house.
On offer in the sale, however, are an impressive English oak dresser, estimated at £8,000-12,000; an unusually sized English oak 6’ 6” refectory dining table, estimated at £2,000-3,000; and a set of six English oak panel back dining chairs, with an estimate of £2,000-3,000, all made for the wedding of Ronald and Lilian Crossley in 1933.
Two corporate Mouseman commissions are also on offer, firstly an English oak 9ft refectory table, with a £4,000-6,000 estimate and a set of twelve English oak armchairs, estimated at £8,000-12,000, which were by repute made for Yorkshire Copper Works in Leeds in 1939.
Secondly is a selection of furniture and fittings from C.E. Waddington, a family-run gentlemen’s outfitters with three shops in Worksop, Rotherham and Bawtry, commissioned between 1958 and 1965. Highlights include an English oak monk’s chair estimated at £1,500-2,000, and an English oak 5’2” long dressing mirror, with an estimate of £1,000-1,500.
Finally, a there is a highly personal collection of Mouseman and Critter pieces from the estate of the late Ken Almack (1932-2021), one of Robert Thompson’s craftsmen. Almack was born at Sutton-under-Whitestonecliffe, one of nine children, and his brother was Colin (Beaverman) Almack (1930-1996). At the age of fourteen Ken served his apprenticeship at Kilburn under Robert Thompson, then joined The Green Howards Belle Isle Platoon in the early 1950s for National Service. He returned to Kilburn as a craftsman, then married in 1957 at St Mary’s Church, Thirsk. Bob (Wrenman) Hunter was his best man. Highlights of this collection include a burr oak dish top stool, made in 1947 and inscribed ‘For Mam’, estimated at £600-900, and not one but two little carvings of mice standing on a wheel of cheese, each on offer with an estimate of £700-1,000.
The sale will include over 100 lots of Mouseman furniture and furnishings, and over 80 lots by the Yorkshire Critters.