Robert Thompson - Mouseman

The highlight of a private collection of Robert Thompson oak carvings to be offered by Tennants on March 6 is this curious anthropomorphic figure of the ‘Mouseman of Kilburn’.

Furniture by Robert ‘Mouseman' Thompson and more recent productions from the Kilburn workshop attracted the usual enthusiasm at Tennants (20% buyer’s premium).

Classic Robert Thompson products from family collections underline current keen demand.

This set of table and chairs by the ever-popular Mouseman had been bought from the Kilburn workshops in the 1970s by the vendor’s parents.

A rare pair of bookends by Robert ‘Mouseman’ Thompson attracted huge interest and a remarkable £10,000 winning bid at Lawrences of Crewkerne.

The demand for 1960s Pulcini glass birds made by Alessandro Pianon (1931-64) for the Venetian company Vistosi has spiked in recent months.

More homely than the material being produced in Scandinavia and France, the adzed oak furniture first made by Robert ‘Mouseman’ Thompson in the 1920s-30s was, nevertheless, a distinctive genre.

Never out of fashion, the best furniture by Robert Thompson is going through one of its periodic surges – as evident at Wilkinson’s Doncaster rooms last month (ATG No 2369) and at Sworders of Stansted Mountfichet (ATG No 2363) in October.

Capping a vintage year for prime-period Mouseman furniture, a dining suite attracted huge interest when offered for sale in Yorkshire recently.

The Horlicks collection of Robert ‘Mouseman’ Thompson furniture was sold at Sworders’ auction for £236,000.

The Horlicks collection of Robert ‘Mouseman’ Thompson furniture will be sold at auction in Stansted Mountfitchet this autumn.

Originally considered just another 20th century burr oak tallboy among a stack of material from a house clearance brought into the Hazel Grove rooms of Maxwells (15% buyer’s premium), opinions changed when a carved mouse was noticed on the lower left leg.